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3 <br />Orange County Commission for Women <br />Report of Accomplishments <br />I. Programs and Events <br />Girl Talk Mentoring Program for Northern Orange County <br />The Girl Talk Program is a mentoring program for middle school girls, modeled after a national <br />program with the same name. The idea for Girl Talk came out of the Commission for Women's <br />(CFW) 2007 retreat. A subcommittee of CFW members developed the structure for a pilot <br />project of Girl Talk in Orange County in collaboration with staff at A.L. Stanback Middle School <br />in the fall of 2008. <br />The mission of Girl Talk is to help teenage girls build self-esteem, develop leadership skills, and <br />recognize the value of helping others. Weekly meetings are held during the after school program <br />at A.L. Stanback Middle School, during which the high school leaders from Cedar <br />Ridge conduct valuable lessons that address issues middle school girls face everyday (such as <br />bullying, self-image, representation of women in the media, etc.). <br />Participants in the inaugural year of Girl Talk were a diverse group of students. There were 10 <br />Caucasians, 6 African Americans, 5 Latinas, and 1 Asian in the program. The middle school <br />students represented grades 6~' through 8~' while the high school students were all seniors. <br />Based on aself-esteem instrument completed by the students at the beginning and end of the <br />program, of the participants who properly completed the instrument, fifty-seven percent (57%) <br />demonstrated an increase in their self esteem. Discarding two of the participants' results, which <br />indicated a slight decrease within the margin of error, the percentage of participants exhibiting an <br />increase in self esteem is 67%. Of the students whose scores went down, one was reprimanded <br />for poor behavior in the program. Another did not answer all questions on the post-instrument. <br />If she had answered those questions in the same manner as in the pre-instrument, her score <br />would have increased, resulting in 75% of all participants experiencing a positive change in self <br />esteem. <br />Due to the overwhelming success of the program, it was expanded in January 2010, and in its <br />second year now serves more middle and high school girls. This year, there are 13 Caucasians, <br />10 African Americans, and 3 Latinas in the program. Three of the current middle school <br />students also attended the program last year, while another is the younger sister of one of last <br />year's participants. Similar to last year, the middle school students represent grades 6~' through <br />8~'; however, the high school mentors now range from 10~' to 12~' grade. <br />Additionally, the A.L. Stanback personnel and principal associated with Girl Talk have decided <br />to institutionalize the program at the middle school. As such, the CFW is working to transition <br />this program to be completely housed at the school. Pursuant to this goal, a Girl Talk manual is <br />being developed, school staff is being trained, and an infrastructure to sustain this program is <br />being established. During the next academic year, the Commission for Women would like to <br />