Lawrence Youth Outreach Helps Teenaged Girls

The Quota club of Lawrence, Massachusetts, U.S.A., takes full advantage of the opportunity presented by the We Share Foundation to augment service programs with Youth Outreach grants. The Lawrence club has applied for and received a U.S.$500 award each year since the grant program's inception to support their local mentoring efforts.

Photo courtesy of the Eagle-Tribune.

The club's mentoring program assists a group of 10-12 girls, aged 10-14, all from single parent households in one of the poorest communities in Massachusetts. "The area has one of the highest rates of poverty, drug abuse, school drop-outs, and teenaged pregnancy in the state," explains club past president Rita Bonanno, chair of the Mentoring Program. "They are dealing with issues many of us never dealt with while growing up—drugs, guns in school, lack of respect for authority, death of peers, absentee fathers, family members in jail, etc."

Presenting a New Perspective

The Lawrence Housing Authority recommends girls for mentoring through their Drug Abuse Prevention Program. The girls and their mentors meet once a month from September to June in a local restaurant. Guest speakers from the club and the community offer the girls a new perspective on future possibilities and include paramedics, martial arts instructors, nurses, police officers, and successful career professionals.

Topics include personal hygiene, sexually transmitted diseases, violence in schools, how to behave in a crisis, self-defense, and planning for college and careers.

The program's success has been lauded in the local press. Click here for a terrific feature article about the project from the Eagle Tribune, a local newspaper serving the Lawrence area.