Keeping girls in school, helping them dream big, and empowering them to plan for the future is the mission of Girls with Pearls, a local afterschool program for girls. Founded in 2016 at Rockdale Academy Elementary School in Avondale, Girls with Pearls fosters leadership to change the outcome for girls as they grow into young women through education, personal responsibility, and social awareness.
Three other area schools have adopted the program, which incorporates the evidence-based Smart Girls curriculum, provided by Boys and Girls Clubs of America, filling a need for girl-specific, school-based leadership programming.
This May, Girls with Pearls became a program of Most Valuable Kids (MVK), a local nonprofit that turns tickets to sports and entertainment events into life-changing experiences for underserved children in the community. New school-based MVK Girls with Pearls programs will start in the upcoming 2018-2019 academic year.
Joining "Cincinnati Edition" to discuss Girls with Pearls are Tamie Sullivan, executive director; Sherri Friedman, co-founder and chief executive officer of MVK; and Belinda Tubbs-Wallace, principal of Rockdale Academy.
Tune into "Cincinnati Edition" June 11 at 1 p.m. to hear this segment.
