This has been the organization that has helped me to really discover my purpose. I’m doing what I was put on the planet to do – working with girls and young women. I love how we do the work. I started as an intern in 2016 then bought on part-time in 2018 as group facilitator, and in January of 2019 as a full-time mental health professional.
The work is hard. It’s very hard, but it’s very necessary. Especially in the day and age that we live in. It seems like there are countless efforts to suppress the voices of girls and women. Our needs, outlook, our perspectives are just pushed to the margins.
That’s why the work that we do here at the Policy Center is needed more than ever.
The “hard girls”? I love, love, love them! I call them my spirited girls. I also call them my little Caesar girls, because they stay “hot and ready”. Because they are my girls that have fight in them. That lets me know they are not giving up on life. They’ve got fight they just need a good cut person in their corner. They need a good trainer to help them sift through what’s worth fighting for and what isn’t. So as long as they have fight in them, they’ve not given up. That’s what I love about them.
I am deeply embedded in several facilities – locked facilities and alternative schools, filled with girls and women who have encountered some challenges in life that led them into very unfortunate spaces because they didn’t have support, tools, skills, needed. Because they didn’t get what they needed, now they’re in these systems. These systems are designed to punish, designed to change behavior without understanding what’s driving it and what the true needs are.
The biggest misconception about the girls and women we serve? It is that somehow, they’re damaged and broken. That they are loud and dramatic. That they are grown. That they are fast. But, in my experiences here, the true adjectives are in danger or confused. You see that they are actually not safe. I have two young women in pretrial, where during their initial assessment one of the questions that’s asked is, “If you could change one thing in the world, for girls, what would it be?”. Both of their answers were, “To be safe from abuse. To be safe at home, to be safe in my community”. There is a great need for protection. Girls are not safe. They. Are. Not. Safe. And so, when we talk about how girls are aggressive or whatever the case is, well, what are they supposed to do to protect themselves and to create whatever degree of safety they can? Just look at what’s dominating the headlines, right this very moment. Women who were victimized, girls who were not safe and taken advantage of by powerful, more resourced individuals in our very own country. We’ve just got to do a much better job of providing safety for them.
I just enjoy the process of taking a girl from tunnel vision to embracing what’s in the peripheral, that panoramic view. I love that. Because it’s not about changing their perspective per se. It’s about expanding it.
Because my faith means so much to me, I consider myself a servant. I make it a habit to tell them how much of a privilege and an honor it is to serve them. Although I’m here in a therapeutic capacity, I learn things from them. They sharpen my tools. They inspire me to continue to do this work. They’re my fuel.
One of my clients, the longest one that I’ve been working with, started when she was 12. She just turned 18 and we are still working together. She came into the program as a result of some charges and we were able to provide therapeutic services for her, and care management for her and the family. I’m happy to report like during that entire time – 8 years now – she’s never had any more contact with the juvenile justice system. She’s preparing for graduation. She actually just started the Opportunity Project program that helps with job training and career building. It also encourages artistic expression. Her mother is currently in active addiction. She has 2 younger siblings and was frequently put in a position of being caretaker to both mom and to her siblings. So, she really hasn’t had a childhood. She’s always had to be mature and it shows in the work that we do together. Now, she’s optimistic about her future. She’s making choices for herself now and preparing for life as an adult. And she loves staying connected in services. She says, “I want to stay connected because when things arise, I can count on you to be there”. And she’s right! She’s my girl.
The truth of it? These girls are amazing. Girls bring heart. They bring insight. They bring creativity. They bring their full selves. I just see them with so much promise, so many possibilities. But, only if there’s an opportunity for them to see themselves in a better light. It’s really easy for anybody, especially impersonable girls, to find their identity and the things that people say about them, if it’s said long enough and loud enough. So, what if we were able to say all these amazing things loud enough and long enough for them to actually see themselves in that positive way? That’s what I do.
—Sakenia
