By COLONEL (Ret.) NORMA JEAN BRADFORD
Special to The Sun-Sentinel
CASCILLA — The fifth annual Girls’ Empowerment Retreat was held here over a two-day period, June 25-26. A total of 19 girls attended the event, designed to empower girls to continue the path of being their best selves.
Norma Bradford-Gallaspy and Dr. Arletha Coffey (both Charleston High School Class of 1983 alumni) and others spent two days educating, sharing, instilling, inspiring, exposing and, hopefully, making a positive impact in these young girls’ lives!
This year, we had special emphasis on Black History and how it is still relevant today. Overall, the goals of the retreat continue to be:
• Equip girls with leadership techniques and communication skills
• Educate, expose and empower
• Improve and instill levels of confidence/self-esteem in girls
• Mental health awareness
During our retreats, we always start off with a continental breakfast, then an icebreaker to loosen everyone up.
The topics that we touched on included: Black historic figures past and present and their contributions, learning the Black Anthem, scenarios giving the girls the opportunity to present and speak in front of their peers, different types of communication skills, social media and its consequences (good and bad), etiquette, and early stages of finance.
The girls were able to paint portraits to take home, get to know each other and we had the best time learning “Lift Every Voice” (some of the girls had never heard of it). At the end of the retreat, they performed the song for the adults.
They were given the opportunity to speak freely, exchange experiences and ask the presenters questions on any of the topics. We reiterated it was their retreat; we were there for them.
Dr. Coffey does an amazing job with the personal hygiene portion. She broke the girls out into groups, gave a topic related to different areas of personal hygiene and had them to work as a team, come up with a presentation and share with the group.
Reinforcing confidence, building self-esteem, speaking in front of others and thinking on their feet are some of the areas that we focus on every year.
We believe we reached our goals by sharing experiences and techniques, interaction, providing leadership opportunities and allowing girls to share in a safe, no- judgement environment.
As in years past, my mindset continues to be that if we can help at least one girl navigate through some of life’s experiences, then we are making an impact. I love to see some of the girls come back year after year.
My hope is that each one of the girls knows that she is unique and valued and leaves feeling more empowered, confident and inspired to accomplish their goals in life.
We see our young selves in them and feel that it is important for us to give back to our local communities!. As always, everything is free to the girls and we always send this home with goody bags!
Thank you to our volunteers and presenters: Dr. Coffey, Louise Andrews, Bernice Bradford, Sandra Brooks, Bessie Watson and Mary Andrews.
Thank you to our sponsors: Piney Grove M.B. Church, Cascilla; www.edensworldtravel.com; and Mercy Lughana.
