Latasha

Twelve year-old "Latasha" was one of the "tough girls" in GHA’s Leadership, Empowerment, Action, and Health Promotion (LEAP) Program.

The LEAP Program, a collaboration between Global Health Action and the DeKalb County School System, was active from 2005 to 2008, serving adolescent girls between 10 and 15 years of age. The aim was to prevent high-risk health behaviors and enhance girls' strengths through health education, leadership training, and awareness of themselves and others. The girls were recommended for the program by school counselors. Some were immigrant or refugee girls who needed information and a forum to ask questions. Others were girls with behavioral issues.

Latasha was part of the second group, and from day one, it was clear she was only in the program because she had to be. She was standoffish and unpleasant. She didn't know any of the other girls in the program, and she didn't want to know any of them. Every session, she would sit alone at an empty table and dare anyone to sit with her. She only participated in the discussions and activities when she had to.

This went on for a number of weeks until the session on community mapping - a workshop in which the girls identify the relationships and connections in their lives. GHA's facilitator read one of the slips of paper from the always-available "Question Box," which serves as a way for the girls to ask questions or make comments anonymously: “My Dad doesn't live with me and it makes me mad and sometimes it can make me cry. What should I do?”

Then, out of nowhere, Latasha opened up to the group: "I act like this because my Dad left and I don't know if I'll ever have anyone who'll be there for me. I'm mad all the time and . . . " Latasha talked and talked, and the other girls, who she had spent so much time pushing away, were kind and supportive, offering comfort and their own stories.

For Latasha that was a turning point. After that outpouring of bottled-up feelings, she came and participated willingly. She wanted to be there. She smiled and was friendly with the other girls. In fact, she became a leader in organizing and presenting the group's end-of-program community action project. And, on the day she received her certificate as a LEAP graduate, her smile was broad and bright.


                                        LEAP Girls in action in 2007