Girl Power: A Second Chance for NYC Teens

Heather Butts is a newly-inducted Fellow of The New York Academy of Medicine, an author, and medical historian.

On an April night in Jamaica, Queens, a nervous, but excited group of teen girls gathered for a very special graduation day. Looking their best in carefully chosen special occasion dresses, each girl took her turn reciting poetry or just expressing her feelings about what it meant to become a graduate of the Queens Youth Justice Center’s (QYJC) Young Ladies Initiative (Girls Group).

One 15-year-old shared what it felt like to have a second chance: “In the past 12 weeks in the Girls Group, I’ve kept out of a lot of trouble. I’ve learned how I can solve problems without having to hit someone or argue with them. We learned how to show up at a job interview and how to interview someone else. I met many other nice girls. We all had a lot in common. I came a long way to stay a positive person. I’m thankful for having help turning my life around. This group has had a positive effect on me.”

I’ve chosen to protect our program graduate’s name, but tell her story because it is an  example of what a difference even a brief intervention can make in the life of a child who may appear to be headed down a hopeless path. When she started the program, she showed us her report card. She had a 41 average and came to the program with a multitude of personal issues, but she was willing to deal with them with some guidance.

By the end of the program, her average had climbed to 81 and nothing had changed in her life except the Girls Group intervention. We all knew that she had the ability to do good work in school. By providing her with coping mechanisms in a gender-specific program, and supporting her to deal with issues that had stopped her in the past from achieving her academic goals, she was free to concentrate on her school work.

I am a Lecturer at Columbia University School of Public Health and St. John's University School of Law, but volunteering as a mentor for the Girls Group program and working to address the many issues affecting youth in New York City and young people in general is my life’s work.

At Girls Group, we mentor and counsel 13- to 16-year-old girls who have been arrested for minor offenses (jumping turnstiles or fighting in school) that would most likely lead to more serious offenses, by creating a safe, judgement-free space for them to talk about what’s going on in their lives. “We focus on recreation and play, rather than therapy sessions,” says program director Sally Sanchez.

Instead of making the girls talk to a therapist where they will likely shut down, “we engage them in a competitive game of UNO®, for example, where they share a little about themselves after each round. Other activities include asking them to create vision boards as a canvas for their dreams and the lives they want. Then we sit down with them so that they can work out paths to success,” Sanchez says. The girls even spruce up the neighborhood with their garden projects.

We were fortunate that the girls were willing to explore aspects of themselves that were painful, but needed to be dealt with to explore their emotional and psychological challenges.

The program is just starting out, but we have already seen another young participant’s academic average rise from 65 to 80. Perhaps the greatest success is that the girls from the program’s first year have asked to come back and become mentors to other little girls who are just like them.

Helping NYC teens create healthier, safer, more positive lives also seems like a natural connection to my role as newly-inducted Fellow of The New York Academy of Medicine. Working with young people is a mission I hope to share with other Fellows by teaming up to work across disciplines to find new ways to help urban kids have healthier, better lives through programming that has a long lasting and sustainable impact.