Boston Public Schools launches group counseling program for teen girls

As Boston students prepare to return to the classroom for another year impacted by the pandemic, Acting Mayor Kim Janey is backing the launch of an in-school group counseling program targeting teen girls and their mental health.

“Even before COVID-19, the data suggests that this was an important program for us to invest in here in the city of Boston,” Janey told the Herald Monday.

Boston Public Schools will roll out WOW — “Working on Womanhood” — in three schools this fall: Madison Park Technical Vocational High School, English High and Burke High.

The program ushers girls into 50-minute weekly counseling sessions during the school day, where they can discuss exposure to trauma and feelings of depression and anxiety in groups of 10 to 12 peers. WOW counselors are clinically trained to lead teens through exercises focusing on healthy relationships, resiliency and leadership.

WOW comes from Chicago-based nonprofit Youth Guidance, which first launched a boys’ program called Becoming a Man (BAM). BAM has been in Boston Public Schools since 2017. The WOW program is funded by the city of Boston and investors from GreenLight Fund.

While BAM focuses on giving boys the tools to express themselves and avoid violent confrontations, WOW addresses girls’ experiences of trauma and isolation, and empowers them to be strong young women, organizers said.

“We’re looking to provide a safe space for young women to have brave conversations,” said Youth Guidance Executive Director Shawn Brown.

A decade of data from WOW groups in Chicago and Kansas City schools shows that 71% of students in WOW expressed fewer depression symptoms than when they started the lessons. Youth Guidance estimates that 7 out of every 10 students in WOW have “clinically significant” symptoms of PTSD, anxiety and depression at the program’s start. By its end, 62% of those students experienced fewer PTSD symptoms, according to Youth Guidance.

Kate Lamanna, a rising senior at Boston Latin Academy, is excited about the program expansion after having worked as the lone female scholar in BAM last year.

“I’m most excited that these girls, who I know and see that are struggling, they’ll be able to have someone to talk to,” she said. “They’ll know that they’re not alone, and they don’t have to feel alone.”

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3ijAghB