Skip to main content

Help Support Self-Esteem Programs

By Terri Rimmer

The Girl Scouts of the USA has a program to help young women build self-confidence.

The uniquely ME! Program also offers educational resources and hands on activities and is sponsored by the Dove Self Esteem Fund.

With a True You Workbook the program addresses such issues as not feeling attractive.

“A mom is one of the most important influences in the life of a daughter,” according to program literature.

The program encourages moms to give their daughters strength and courage to feel beautiful in a world that may challenge her values by taking inventory of their own feelings of beauty.

The program is for girls ages 8-14 and is available in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

Three activity booklets available in English and bilingual English/Spanish guide girls through simple exercises that help them understand and build self-confidence.

Created in 2002 to address the critical nationwide problem of low self-esteem among adolescent and pre-adolescent girls, the program recognizes strengths and attributes and addresses handling peer pressure, healthy eating habits, hygiene, general wellness, exercise, and identifying core values and personal interests.

A recent study by the Girl Scout Research Institute, The New Normal? What Girls Say about Healthy Living found that girls define their health in holistic terms and place equal value on emotional and physical well-being.

An adult guide is also available for Girl Scout troop leaders and adult volunteers to serve as a resource for the program.

Some tips for building self-esteem include celebrating who you are, surrounding yourself with positive people, challenging yourself to try new things, being good to your body, finding and expressing the real you, learning from your experience, and finding the humor in every day life.

“I was involved with the Girl Scout and Brownies,” said volunteer Karla, age 28. “We had the volunteer badges so we would go to a lot of nursing homes.”

“I started when I was in high school volunteering with Family Support Services in a summer day camp with teenagers with developmental delays,” said Katie, a 25-year-old volunteer. “Some of the kids that I started working with ten years ago I’m still working with. We’ve kind of grown together.”

One component of the uniquely ME! Program has been the participation of gymnast and Olympic gold medalist Dominique Dawes who has served as the national spokesperson.

For more information go to girlscouts.org/program on the web.

Popular posts from this blog

Nature Organization Helps With Katrina Effort

By Terri Rimmer Recently 14 Nature Conservancy staff and two volunteers helped out in Mississippi with Hurricane Katrina relief. The country’s wildland fire management resources were mobilized to help with the government’s response. Although their hurricane-related duties didn’t have anything to do with flames their training lent itself well. During the stay in Hattiesburg, MS the team from the Nature Conservancy was able to have housing, transportation, meals, and other needs met. Within the organization the help was orchestrated by Paula Seamon and Sam Lindblom of the agency’s Global Fire Initiative. The team was involved in a variety of activities from clearing timber to helping evacuees. The Initiative helps teach people how fire can be useful and how it can be destructive. According to a press release from nature.org, the Conservancy’s website, the agency and partners have proposed renewed coastal conservation in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. A September release also stated that ...
Read more

Women Using Book To Help People and Animals

By Terri Rimmer Donations from the profits of a new book are going to help people with AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) and their pets. Following last year’s election, Cathy Conheim and her partner Dr. Donna Brooks were driving to their home, feeling discouraged about current events. There were “dog people” but when they arrived home they discovered a three-month-old kitten living on their property that had been injured badly. Off to the vet they sped with their young charge. An amputation was necessary to save the kitten’s life and they were told that he could no longer be an outdoor cat. They ended up adopting “Henry” and there ensued an incredible journey. Conheim started writing about the cat’s adventures as much for her own healing regarding some bad news politically as for anything else. She sent them to 20 people who sent them on, and today, Henry The Cat has 2,300 emails in ”his” letterbox in the sky. “My cat, Rhett Butler became one of Henry’s teachers and correspond...
Read more

Making Subsidies Accountable

By Terri Rimmer An award winner and author founded Good Jobs First back in 1998. Greg LeRoy, who wrote No More Candy Store: States and Cities Making Jobs Subsidies Accountable and winner of the 1998 Public Interest Pioneer Award of the Stern Family Fund, has made his organization a national leader. Good Jobs First frequently testifies before state legislatures, conducts workshops and training, and appears in the press. Good Jobs first says that the failure of large companies such as Wal-Mart to provide affordable and comprehensive health coverage to many of their employees has been a subject of growing controversy – all the more so because large numbers of those workers not insured on the job are turning instead to government programs such as Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). According to their website, goodjobsfirst.org, Wal-Mart has received more than $1 billion in economic development subsidies from state and local governments across the country. The...
Read more