Programs

Turning Point Project is our branch program focusing on violence prevention through storytelling and the performing arts. By 2027, Global Girls will partner with schools, community organizations and local governments to engage 5,000 girls in the US and in other countries in a movement to train, connect and champion ideas and causes that benefit girls and women. We have branches in Chicago, Mounds, East St. Louis, Springfield, Decatur, Champaign and Kankakee, Illinois with girls learning emotional intelligence, peace principles and the performing arts. We’ll soon have groups in Kalamazoo Michigan; Los Angeles, California; and Washington, DC. participants learn storytelling, dancing, acting and impromptu speaking skills. All programs provide opportunities for youth to perform before audiences. Most school-based programs occur during the school day on a contract basis.

Global Girls Peer to Peer Mentoring is offered to youth who age out of our basic programs (16 and older) and still want to be involve in the Global Girls family as junior session facilitators on Saturdays and in the summer program. The program objectives are:

• 1) providing a safe, confidential space in which youth can bond and share stories.
• 2) learning to teach dance, acting and storytelling skills.
• 3) develop a cohort of youth performers/peer educators with excellent communication skills who can work with and train other youth.
• 4) write and present performances based on the youth’s realities.
• 5) work with Global Girls to establish Global Girls programs and groups in other cities.

Global Girls Theatre Collaborative (GTC) creates and stages original theatre that unpacks, challenges and heals. Youth who’ve mastered dance, acting and story crafting perform their shows for youth and adult audiences at The Global Studio and in various venues around Chicago and throughout Illinois. Springing from first person narratives, their shows confront issues of racial injustice, domestic and dating violence, adultism, teen pregnancy, sexual abuse, social media, street harassment and more with language and scenes that some find provocative, but youth believe capture their realities.

Arts Partner in the School is our coed school-based program. Global Girls teaching artists partner with teachers to enhance the classroom lesson with a performance component. Most sessions are in collaboration with reading/language arts instruction resulting in performances based on reading selections. Schools contract with Global Girls for this fee-based program.

Young Woman on the Move combines group mentoring with performance skill development and original production creation. Girls learn acting, dance, and social/emotional skills in our after school and Saturday sessions at the Global Studio. The program is also offered to schools on a contract basis and runs from 10 weeks to the entire school year.

International Travel and GTC members travel to other countries and teach other girls how to craft and stage their stories. They’ve worked with groups of girls in Accra, Ghana; Nairobi and Mombasa, Kenya; Tamil Nadu, India, Grenada, West Indies and Dar es Salaam and Bagamoyo, Tanzania. The India and Grenada arts exchanges were funded through the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur International Connections program. The exchanges begin with creating a safe space so that participants can open up and share their stories. They end with youth feeling empowered, encouraged and happy to have had the chance to stage what was always in their hearts