"Whatever your life's work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better"

Goals of the Program: To provide low income teenage girls exposure to positive experiences, settings, and people as well as abundant opportunities to gain and refine their life skills in order to support their healthy development and growth.

Objectives of the Program: To help low income teenage girls ages 13-18 develop socially acceptable social skills, gain knowledge of risk behaviors, gain knowledge of the extent, causes, and solutions to teen dating violence, improve self-esteem, and gain knowledge of career opportunities and employment skills after participating in the program.

Problem Statement: The period of adolescence is complicated; it is full of opportunities and risks. Adolescents have the potential to develop into mature, strong, creative, and smart adults. But, many adolescents living in poor/low income communities are exposed to unhealthy and unsafe environments that can endanger both their present health and well-being and their future adult opportunities. Studies show that adolescents at higher risk for early, unintended pregnancy are more likely to live in communities with high rates of poverty, high residential turnover, low levels of parental education, high rates of divorce and single parenthood, high rates of non marital births, high unemployment and poor labor force opportunities, (Kirby 1197; More et al. 1995; Wilson, 1996). Adolescents in poor neighborhoods have less proof of the link between educational success and good jobs. They see fewer working families, have limited exposure to neighbors owning or employed in local businesses, and have weaker connections to entry level jobs. When adults do work, it is often in low-wage jobs that do little to inspire them, Alex Gitterman, 2001. The United States experienced a rise in teen births in 2006 after 14 years of steady declines, America by the Numbers, 2006. Teen relationship abuse or domestic violence among teens' is increasingly understood to be as pervasive a problem in today's society as adult domestic violence. Studies show 3 out of every 10 teens has experienced violence in their dating relationships. Black/African-American females experienced domestic violence at a rate 35% higher than that of white females, and about 22 times the rate of other races, Intimate Partner Violence, U.S. Dept. of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Statistics, May 2004. Furthermore, the affects of low self-esteem show that 90% of eating disorders are found in girls and 58% of girls admit to dieting.