Try rock climbing, perhaps.
That and other outdoor adventures are the tools of choice at Girlventures, a nonprofit Bay Area program with a mission to "empower adolescent girls to develop and express their strengths."
 Girlventures co-founder Elizabeth McLeod and daughter Sadie Grace Nolan, 2, pose at the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve in Moss Beach. |
"I've never really put this out to this community," said McLeod, a three-year Montara resident.
And while the Bay Area has many organizations that reach teen girls, she added, "they don't have girls from the coast."
So she is hosting a party Sunday, Feb. 4, to introduce Girlventures and the Coastside to one another. She hopes to recruit adults to volunteer and help with fund-raising, and girls to take part in the programs.
Girlventures offers mentoring programs and self-defense. But, said McLeod, the organization's core is its summer program, which operates on a motto of "Outdoor Adventures for Inner Discovery" and combines outdoor activities, healthy risk-taking and creative arts.
That program involves taking girls for 14-day expeditions that include kayaking, rock climbing or backpacking. They foster the inner discovery part, along with journal writing, group discussions, creative arts and theater games.
The fee for the 14-day excursions is $1,200, but about two-thirds of the girls take advantage of Girlventures scholarships.
The process is an exploration of self and community, culture and environment, to help the girls define and hone intuition, leadership, courage, curiosity, compassion, communication and positive self-image.
The girls learn skills in celebrating identities, problem-solving and conflict resolution among other things.
It was as a teacher that McLeod had an inkling that girls needed help in these areas, she said.
Teaching fifth grade through middle school "was when I got into that age of girls because I noticed how much they changed from fifth grade to junior high school," she said. "Their spunk, outspokenness and confidence started to shift. They started to doubt themselves."
While adolescence is a prime time for self-doubt in both boys and girls, she acknowledged, there were ways to help.
She went back to school and earned a master's degree in education from a Harvard program she'd sought out because its faculty included Carol Gilligan and Annie Rogers, two well-established professors in the field of women's studies and girls' psychology.
She met a kindred spirit in a San Francisco teacher, with whom she devised the idea of a program that would work with girls in an alternative environment. They chose the wilderness.
Out of that, in 1997, emerged Girlventures, initially named the Bay Area Girls Center and based in San Francisco.
"This is designed to help them explore and discover and express their strengths," McLeod said.
"They start with physical strength and realize that the (inner resources) you draw on are the same ones you draw on for something that's a more emotional challenge," she said.
Sunday's informative party will include guests who know these things firsthand, McLeod said. They include a Moss Beach teen who will discuss her experiences, and Bay Area resident Marisol Vela, who took part in the first outdoor adventure in 1997 and went on to become a Girlventures instructor and serve on its board of directors.
"Our dream," said McLeod, "is that girls who do the trips eventually become instructors."
For more information, and for directions to Sunday's party, contact McLeod at 726-2888.
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AT A GLANCE
What: Girlventures informative party
Where: A private residence in Montara
When: 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 4
Cost: Free
Information: Elizabeth McLeod, 728-2888
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