Ages 15-17
The school-to-prison pipeline is filled with Black girls, yet no one is paying much attention. Black girls are six times more likely to be suspended and three times more likely to be physically restrained by police. A simple google search for "Black girl suspended for hair" will return numerous instances of Black girls (and a smattering of Black boys) being suspended or expelled from their educational settings for wearing their natural hair in either an afro, dreadlocks, or braids. In 2015, a video surfaced of a 15-year-old Black girl in Columbia, South Carolina, being tossed across the room before being body-slammed by a male school police officer for refusing to surrender her cellphone to the teacher. Despite their negative experience within their educational setting, Black women are one of the most educated demographics to date, doubling their Black male counterparts' rate.
Black girls are often overlooked within their community as the focus tends to lean towards the health, safety, and protection of Black boys. Black girls are being cultivated in an environment that encourages them to place the multiple needs of Black boys and men ahead of their own, even when it's to their detriment. The unhealthy relationship between Black women and their community often begins at this phase. The relationship that Black women have with their community is one that conflates love with self-sacrifice. The "ride or die" mentality that develops from this toxic relationship is a breeding ground for multiple forms of abuse, including physical, sexual, and emotional towards women.
What you do now determines where you'll be in ten years…
Thrive is a program that is critical to the development of Black girls. Thrive is designed to help our girls create a ten-year vision for their life now so that they are no longer surviving life and learning how to begin thriving in life. We will start by examining the messages that they have been delivered about Black girls and women. We will also begin to explore possible career and college options. Thrive's objective is to teach our girls how to envision their lives now so that they won't have to piece it together later.