
{"id":4521,"date":"2009-01-08T08:21:12","date_gmt":"2009-01-08T16:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=4521"},"modified":"2009-01-08T08:21:12","modified_gmt":"2009-01-08T16:21:12","slug":"recently-climbing-high-with-a-safety-net","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2009\/01\/08\/recently-climbing-high-with-a-safety-net\/","title":{"rendered":"Recently: Climbing high with a safety net"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By <strong>Valarie Schwartz<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no denying the difficulties connected with being a teenager. The angst of that age involves charting unfamiliar waters and facing adult situations \u00e2\u20ac\u201d sometimes with an adult-looking body \u00e2\u20ac\u201d but with the experience and insecurities of a child.<\/p>\n<p>For 12 years, Teens Climb High (TCH), a program of the Women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Center in Chapel Hill, has endeavored, with assistance from the middle schools, to make this passage easier and safer for some girls in our community.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nGirls from families with seriously limited resources may have more exposure to potentially damaging situations, but through school referrals such girls are invited to attend afterschool sessions of TCH from sixth through eighth grade. This year, 41 girls,<br \/>\ndivided by grade and school into five groups, meet each week. TCH transforms these middle school years from a time filled with questions and lack of confidence into one where their peers begin to turn to them for answers, frequently continuing beyond their teens. <\/p>\n<p>Julia Thornton was a planner on the founding committee for the program that started in 1996. A needs assessment performed by the Resident\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Council in the public housing communities in Chapel Hill indicated the need for a program that addressed teen pregnancies. Now Thornton\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s daughter, Allicson Rone, is a peer leader \u00e2\u20ac\u201d a position that eighth-graders in the program can apply and interview for to help coordinate program events.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153When she first started TCH, she felt like she didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have any friends and she had low self-esteem,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Thornton said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When the opportunity came, I signed her up. Now she has more friends and she gives a lot of advice, like a little old lady,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Thornton said with a tickle in her voice. <\/p>\n<p>TCH covers far more serious ground than charm school of my day, and Destini Purefoy, a seventh-grader at Smith, had no qualms about telling me what they learn. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We learn about STDs, how to say no, where to get birth control, stuff like that,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said at the TCH Winter Celebration last month. She said that she now has more higher-quality friends than when she began the program. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Me and my mom used to not talk much; now we do,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. <\/p>\n<p>Even though Fabiola Castillejos speaks very little English, she sought out the program for her middle daughter, Sonia, 14, wanting to avoid the circumstances she endured with her eldest daughter, now 19. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I like it a lot,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Castillejos said in Spanish. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It has been helpful for Sonia.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They teach us a lot of things,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Sonia said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We play curriculum-based games and learn about self-esteem and our bodies. I feel like I have a better understanding of life in general.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Kristi Page, 29, has been leading and watching girls climb high for three years as the director of Adolescent Programs at the Women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Center, and for a year before that as an intern in the master\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s of social work program at UNC. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think what really motivated me as an intern was the participants. To see them in the academic year and broader, through the three years we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re together, really impresses me. You really get to form a relationship with the girls. To see them mature and grow into young women means the world to me. I love it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>This age girl looks for role models of what a woman should be, and having at least two interns from UNC each year gives them choices of whom to emulate, as they become young women. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I definitely want to be in a school working with young ladies,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said intern Carlie Ewen, 24. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I used to be a teacher. I like the idea of doing preventive measures for some of the things I saw my high school students go through. I really enjoy it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Mark your calendars to attend the Women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Center\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s month-long 30th anniversary events beginning with an opening night cocktail reception on March 6 at the center at 210 Henderson St. For details, call 968-4610 or see <a href=\"http:\/\/womenspace.org\">womenspace.org<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Contact Valarie Schwartz at 923-3746 or valariekays@mac.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Valarie Schwartz There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no denying the difficulties connected with being a teenager. The angst of that age involves charting unfamiliar waters and facing adult situations \u00e2\u20ac\u201d sometimes with an adult-looking body \u00e2\u20ac\u201d but with the experience and insecurities of a child. For 12 years, Teens Climb High (TCH), a program of the Women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Center&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recently"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4521"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4522,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4521\/revisions\/4522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}