Empowering Young Women For The Future

By Arielle Altman

(Poughkeepsie) - On Wednesday, August 9^th, the Mill Street Loft, the young ladies of PASWORD and Project AWARE participated in a Rites of Encouragement ceremony to show the community what they have accomplished by the mid-way point in these empowerment programs. Although they will not graduate until December, the few weeks that the girls have spent in the programs have already influenced positive changes towards self-expression and sisterhood, the goals of PASWORD (Program for Adolescent Student Women of Real Direction) and AWARE (Adolescent Women Are Realizing Empowerment).

“It is really beautiful to see the girls open up and flower,” said Lady Prema, a Mill Street Loft drama teacher, about the progress of the programs. Before the Rites of Encouragement ceremony, the ladies performed a variety of skits, poems, and songs, and some girls chose to read entries from their journals. Many of these performance pieces had an anti-smoking theme, which was carried over from the tobacco awareness commercials that the spring sessions made with Time Warner Cable. Displayed in the back of the gallery space were masks and marbled fabric made by the girls. According to Director Joan Henry, the array of artistic outlets at the ceremony is only the tip of the iceberg for what will come with the continuation of the AWARE and PASWORD in the fall.

“When these girls come to the end of the program in December, you will all be astounded,” said Henry to the families attending the ceremony. While most sessions of AWARE and PASWORD would have ended a couple of weeks after this point in the session, the grant support this year is allowing Henry for the first time to continue working with the same girls for longer to further enrich their experiences.

Before the girls took a break until the school year resumes, they participated in the Rites of Encouragement ceremony in which “the community is asked to acknowledge the growing power, strength, and independence” of the young women. This traditional Native American ceremony included Henry naming each girl with an individual character trait that she has developed over the course of the session. The PASWORD and AWARE alumni girls introduced their new “sisters” and spoke about their experiences together.

“The bonding that takes place here is really very special,” said Carole Wolf, Executive Director of the Mill Street Loft. “These girls are given a safe environment where they can live together and share.”

When the programs conclude in December, the girls will go through a Rites of Passage ceremony, which indicates their graduation from PASWORD and AWARE and being handed back to the community.

Pictured Above Tiffany Mendoza, Catherine Bianco, Danielle Williams, and Melia Williams cheer for no smoking in a skit at Mill Street Loft.