Girl Scouts plans effort to build girls’ self-esteem

Girl Scouts Inland Empire Council is one of 11 councils nationwide chosen to receive a $100,000 grant from Dove to fund Uniquely ME, a program designed to boost self-esteem among girls age 8 to 17.

Dove, a skin and hair products company, partnered with Girl Scouts USA to present the Uniquely ME program as a way to educate and inspire girls, making them feel more confident about themselves and expanding the definition of beauty.

The program will provide hands-on activities for girls in Eastern Washington and North Idaho over the next three years.

“Research done by the Girl Scouts Research Institute at the national level has found that many, many adolescent and pre-adolescent girls suffer from low self-esteem and low self-esteem leads to high-risk behaviors. This program is to target those issues for this age group,” said Jamie Fair, local program manager.

Risky behavior can include smoking, drinking, drug use and eating disorders.

The program will begin at Glover and Salk middle schools, Rogers High School and Crosswalk, and will be expanded over the next few months in the Spokane Valley, South Side and North Idaho.

“We are working with and piggybacking on groups already in progress,” Fair said. “With Crosswalk, I’m going every Friday afternoon to work with those girls on health, nutrition and body image issues.”

Collaborations with local colleges, high schools, community centers, Native groups and other community youth-related organizations will serve as vehicles to reach at-risk girls, providing mentoring relationship and community connections.

Fair has spent the past five years working with high risk 12- to 18-year-olds.

A group of college-age women has volunteered to act as mentors and advisers for the program. Some have worked through their own issues with self-esteem and have learned how to deal with it.

About half of the volunteers were Girl Scouts when they were younger and want to give back to the organization, Fair said.

There are more than 5,000 Girl Scouts, ages 5 to 17, in 21 counties in Eastern Washington and North Idaho served by the Girl Scouts Inland Empire Council.