During each retreat we immerse the girls in cultural, social and emotional experiences that will help them develop into well-round- ed young women.
Many GEM alums are the first in their families to attend college. the girls with applications or essays.
One of the things we do in GEM is to take six overnight retreats a year. These retreats are multifaceted and strategic. One of the reasons we take the girls away is because when I was working at Chesapeake High School as a guidance counselor, I realized that my students never really went outside of Essex. They had been to the city, where they told me the rats were as big as cats, but they had never been, say, to Tow- son, a 10 minute ride up the beltway. It was no surprise that only 20 percent of the graduates go out of Baltimore for college. Actually only about 20 percent of Chesapeake High School grads go to four-year schools right out of high school. I thought 'How are they ever going to go away to college, live in a dorm and have a campus experi- ence if no one from this community leaves? How will they ever break out of this cycle of poverty to become self- sufficient young women if they never see outside of here?'
So, exposure is one reason we go on retreats. Another is to get them com- fortable in other environments so they can envision themselves living away from home. Yet another is to have 30 hours a month - over a weekend, in a supportive and nurturing environment where they can focus on self develop- ment and be in a "drama free zone," which could mean away from family demands, neighborhood violence, etc.
22 WOMENOFCOLOR | FALL 2010
Lastly, we have a strong
alumni program where we meet two [or] three times a year to touch base over lunch, dinner, or a program event. In addition, the lines of com- munication are always open for the girls in college to call or email me or the other leaders for any support they need. Something I always say to the girls is, 'You can't help where you came from but you can control where you are going'. I frequently text, email and talk to our alumni to help them and give them encour- agement and support.
WOC: Essex turned 101 years old this August. Reports say many neigh- borhoods have begun a "clean-up" of their areas, hoping to transform Es- sex into a place that will be ready to move into the next century. Is GEM part of this revitaliza- tion?
DW: Community service
is a large component of our program and helping clean up Essex would be a great project for the girls. I will look into it as one of our service projects.
WOC: Tell us about some of the high- lights of the 2009-2010 year. Where did you go for retreats? How do you choose?
DW: We try to vary where we go so the girls go to at least a dozen different sites in their three years in GEM. Our retreat centers range from rustic-camp- ing at Genessee Valley Outdoor Learn- ing Center or sleeping on the floor at Living Classrooms Foundation-to centers like North Bay Retreat Center or the Pearlstone Conference and Retreat Center, or hotels like Courtyard by Marriott. We also vary the settings from urban to rural. Sometimes retreat sites are determined by a cultural activ- ity such as a show or museum we want to visit. Some are based around a col- lege visit and some around program- ming such as sailing or rope courses.
“Something I always say to the girls is, ‘You can’t help where you came from but you can control where you are going’. I frequently text, email and talk to our alumni to help them and give them encouragement and support.”- Debbi Weinberg, founder and director of Girls’ Empowerment Mission (GEM).
Last year's highlights include our holi- day trip to New York, where we saw the Rockettes in Radio City's Christmas spectacular, explored the city in small groups and were hosted by one of our board members at her office for lunch and listened to a presentation about a career. We also stayed at Camp Letts; Best Western hotel in Baltimore City, where Toby's Dinner Theater is housed, and we saw Dream Girls. Genes- see Valley Outdoor Learning Center is always a highlight for our new girls.
One of the girls' fa- vorites was at the Jew- ish Com- munity
Center of Owings Mills. They learned salsa and kick-boxing, had a few career workshops with speakers, went swimming, played ball, climbed in the playground, visited a pumpkin patch, went through a huge corn maze, and toured Stevenson University. They slept in sleeping bags on the floor.
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