CALLING OUT TO MY FEMALE PEERS

Kenyetta Gaines

Youth Leader

NSO/Youth Initiatives Project


Hello my name is Kenyetta Gaines I live on the eastside of Detroit and I am a female teen living with challenges everyday just like every average female teen. The major challenges that female teens face today are very difficult.

One of the challenges is females being disrespected by young boys or even men. Some of us can’t even walk the streets without being disrespected or even worse. Men would try to talk to you even if you tell them you’re under the age of 18. It’s so much peer pressure out here and if you’re not strong minded you’ll fall for anything like drugs, unprotected sex, gangs and everything else. It’s like if you don’t do this or if you don’t do that, you’re not going to be cool. But, you’ll be the coolest person once you graduate from high school and go on with your career.

Female teens please don’t let anyone talk you into anything you feel you do not want to do. As a young female, you want to carry yourself with respect. Also have pride in yourself and confidence. There’s a lot of stuff out here that can really bring us down. Another thing is being your own leader. Lead with dignity, self respect and love. Never let any one tell you anything different about yourself. Love self and love others.

Everything that I have written is simply my experience with what I went through and I had to learn for myself. I am 16 years old. I have been with Y.I.P since the 8th grade but when I left middle school all that changed. I met up with old friends from elementary and middle school and got caught up with a gang. Would you like to know what that gang did to me? That gang got me all Fs on all 4 of my report cards. I stopped going to school. I fought other girls, while coming home from school, because that’s what I thought I should do. I was hanging around the wrong group of people. Now, I know better.

I got into a fight one day at school. My friend and I fought some other girls and got kicked out of school. After we fought, they called our homes. My mom contacted on my cell phone and told me to get home. Instead of listening to my mom, I decided to follow my friend and go to the house of a girl who had fought me earlier, since my friend lived down the street from her. We fought again and some how I ended up in a back of an ambulance truck. I got my face split open with a razor blade and I still have that scar, till this day. Every time I wake up or pass a mirror and see the scar on the side of my face, it reminds of that day, November 10, 2006, my mom’s birthday and the day I got cut. Do you want to know the silly part about all of this? The girl I called myself helping and who was my friend at the time did not a scratch on her body that day. I have a scar because I jumped into some one else’s mess that had nothing to do with me. A gang will not get you anywhere but dead or in jail.

I can say I learned a lesson, because when I see that scar on my face it makes me want to do the right thing. It makes me want to say o.k.; another day’s journey and this journey will be a blessed one. I always look in the mirror and say to myself, “You’re beautiful, intelligent, confident and willing to do anything, if you set your mind to it. I decided to get back into Y.I.P and here I am today telling you my story. I thought I would never tell anyone what I just shared with you, but everyone has a story about their life. Youth Initiatives Project will help you through anything you need in life. The program prepares you for the future. It teaches you how to grow up into a respectable smart young female and to see life more clearly.

Our goal is to get as many young females as possible who are in need of help and a positive perspective. We have resource information. Also, we defiantly give support, group sessions and leadership training to girls who want to leave gangs.

I’m putting out a call to all the female teens to be a part of this campaign and make it work.

If you need any information please contact the NSO/Youth Initiatives Project at 313.965.6924.

Peace

Provocative Woman Campaign

Provocative Woman Campaign
Mariama McGhee
Sophomore, UPREP High School


I’m Mariama McGhee, a freshman at U Prep High School, and a citizen of the city of Detroit. I am a member of the NSO/Youth Initiatives Project and an organizer of the Provocative Woman Campaign. We will share our perspectives about our work for the campaign’s blog. My friends and I didn’t volunteer because we had to. We volunteered because we wanted to.

The Provocative Woman Campaign was created for the young women in our community. We want to tackle issues like peer pressure, sexual assault, and violence. A lot of girls are afraid to talk about these issues, but if I tell them my story that will encourage them to speak up. This will even help them empower themselves and gain better confidence. If that happens then this will motivate them to spread their newfound wisdom and knowledge to others.

We are doing this campaign because the pain inflicted on our ladies has got to stop. Too many of our females are lost and alone. They are forced to believe that to do the right thing would mean the end of their reputation. To make things worse, they're not getting enough support from their family and friends. This causes them to lose faith in their ability to help themselves and others. Sadly, some have forgotten their duty as role models to the young ones.

There is a good reason why we created this blog. It can be a good resource for our peers to get help and to speak out. Girls who admire what we are doing can read our messages and can post their own on the blog. Soon many other females can present their ideas and move them to more exciting heights. Our blog will become a haven for ideas and support. That is what people are looking for in our youth. During the summer of 2008, we will have workshops, forums, and rallies to provide resources for our young ladies in need of help. We also will reach out to organizations that can give us resource information.

As you can see our program is dedicated to making sure our young ladies learn the lessons of leadership. Leadership comes with patience and passion. People will follow you if you’re serious about your beliefs. The campaign will be successful if we become passionate about our dreams. That is what makes us different from others. If you are a young lady between 12 and 18, contact the NSO/Youth Initiatives Project at 313.965.6924 for more information about campaign activities.
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