Mission Statement

All four of us met together and finalized our mission statement:

Our mission is to work together with the YWCA to plan a 2-3 hour dialogue event, during their annual women's week, for women and girls about improving self-esteem. As part of our mission we will do research so the event reflects the interests of women both in the broader community and in the YWCA shelter.

Also, in the comments of this post we will be brainstorming ideas for questions to ask on two surveys: one for girl and one for adult and adolescent women. Leslie and Emily will be making contacts to find spaces to get responses to the survey (including hopefully the shelter at the YWCA).

Forming and Mission Statement and Seeking Resources

Per class discussion, the group wants to:
1. Form a mission statement
2. Identify and read academic resources
3. Identify possible key informants, allies, and advocates.

1. The group will use the comments on this post to brainstorm mission statements. We have discussed wanting to move focus from body image, which was discussed initially, to a broader focus on self-esteem. This will allow the incorporation of body image but allow other important topics to be discussed as well.

2. The group has already begun work on finding academic sources with our blog last week. If we haven't read the articles posted by other group members yet, that is a goal.

3. As a group we were able to discuss a few resources that could help to better understand creating a program to present when we do a self-esteem focused event with the YWCA. Coming up at Leslie's practicum is a presentation by the YWCA to students on similar topics to ours. Leslie is going to check with her field practicum supervisor to see if our group members could visit during these. Emily knows someone named Jenny that coordinates girls' groups in the community with kids and teens. She is going to contact Jenny to see if there is a time she could meet with the group to discuss ideas and techniques.

All group members participated in discussion together on our project this week.

YWCA Meeting and Tour

On 9/18 Emily, Alexa and I met with Yen, the YWCA volunteer coordinator. She began by telling us a story about a girl who thought she was ugly at the age of 5. Where did this little girl get this message from? Where are most girls getting this message from regardless of age? We thought about possible reasons where young girls are getting these messages from, mothers? media? peers? She continued by sharing with us a need that she saw and her desire in creating a program which focused on body image and girls self esteem. This is an issue that most girls can relate to from all walks of life, no matter where you come from and we saw a need for the community in putting something like this together.  We discussed hosting an event where we would divide the girls into three groups depending on age. One group would be younger girls, another group would be teenagers and another would be adult women. We realized that what may appeal to young girls would not appeal to teenagers or adults so we knew we had to cater to each group differently. We discussed the possibility of someone coming and doing art projects with the younger girls and having a more academic presentation for the adult women.  We also discussed having female speakers come in, but have not decided on who exactly would be presenting.  Overall, we want to empower women, help build confidence and that beauty comes in many different forms not all physical.  

The goal for our group this week was to find academic sources concerning body image and self esteem.

Blog Post 1

Alexa Carr

Emily Donaldson

Stephanie Guadalupe 

Leslie Jensen 

• Our first group meeting was held on September 9, 2014 after class. All group members were present. We first discussed which organization we would want to work with. The group came to a consensus to work with the YWCA. Emily has worked with the YWCA before and has many connections within the agency. We all made a goal to try and understand the agency a little better. We also discussed times to meet, as well as times to meet with staff of the agency

Individual Assignments:

Alexa Carr: Look up YWCA website to familiarize with the agency. Read article, The Well being of the Women of Utah. Set up blog as well as write blog post. 

Emily Donaldson: Look up YWCA website to familiarize with the agency. Read article, The Well being of the Women of Utah. Call YWCA and see when the staff would be able to meet with us. 

Stephanie Guadalupe: Look up YWCA website to familiarize with the agency. Read article, The Well being of the Women of Utah.

Leslie Jensen: Look up YWCA website to familiarize with the agency. Read article, The Well being of the Women of Utah.