Creating Safe Spaces for
Adolescent Girls
Julie Wood
Josephine Ramage
The Young Women’s Leadership School
of Brooklyn
Emotional Wellness
Programs
at
TYWLS Brooklyn
Welcoming Goodie Bag
• Turn and Talk
• Share Out
Advisory
Safe Space
• a place where the physical, •
social, emotional, and
academic developmental
needs of our girls are
addressed.
• Each year our students are
known as a “whole girl” by at
least one adult – their
advisor
a place where our girls can
come together and support
the full inclusion and
celebration of GLBTQ and
other marginalized
populations of our school.
Advisory
• Meets two or three
times/week
• Has a curriculum
• Every student
participates
• Changes yearly
Safe Space
• Meets once a week
• Discussions topics are
chosen by both staff and
students
• Voluntary, changing
group of participants
• Available to the same
students every year
Strategies for Building
Strong Relationships
Staff
– Starts with the hiring process
– Attendance at yearly training required for both
Advisory and Safe Space
– United vision around school’s mission
statement
– Common language around expectations –
Habits of Being - C2OP3R2 – Confident,
compassionate, open-minded, present,
prompt, prepared, respectful, responsible
MISSION STATEMENT
The Young Women’s Leadership School of Brooklyn (TYWLS, Brooklyn)
was established to nurture the intellectual curiosity and creativity of
young women and to address their developmental needs. Learning is
dynamic and participatory, enabling students to experience great success
on many levels, especially in science, mathematics, and technology.
At TWYLS, Brooklyn, students are encouraged to achieve their personal
best in and out of the classroom. Teachers will deliberately make
connections to students’ lives, prior knowledge, and the world. Through
advisory, small class size, and ongoing assessments, students will be
known well by the adults in the building. Thus, learning will be tailored to
students’ interests, needs, and strengths. Students will be challenged and
supported so that they will be prepared for higher level courses
throughout middle and high school.
Every TYWLS student is college bound. The Young Women’s Leadership
School of Brooklyn will graduate 100% of its students in seven years and
each young woman will be accepted into a four year college or university.
Students of TYWLS, Brooklyn, will grow academically and emotionally
into leaders of their school, community, and the world. TYWLS strives to
work with families to instill in the students a sense of community,
responsibility, and ethical principles of behavior-characteristics that will
help to make them leaders of their generation.
Through exposure to technology, engagement in community service,
and participation in action-research and interdisciplinary projects,
students will find their voice and take responsibility for their community.
At TYWLS, Brooklyn, parents are partners and together will support the
experience as each leader grows in Brooklyn.
Ingrained in the school’s culture
• Time built into the school day for Advisory
connections
• Safe Space stickers on classroom doors (teachers
who feel comfortable talking with students about
issues around bullying)
• Staff supports one another, hence students
support one another
• Explicit commitment to “No Bullying”
• Whole school Pledge Day every other week
– Acknowledgment of Bullying
– Reminders, Read Alouds, Video Clips
Safe Space
• Out of 200 students, about 60 different students
have attended at least once.
• Core group of 15 students that have come almost
every week since we started
• Mostly older students (8th and 9th)
• Focus on relationships – friendships, family,
romantic partners
• Focus on internal dynamics – not on impacting
surrounding community (outside of our school
building)
Safe Space Launch
• Use of GLSEN Safe Space kit (manual, signs,
stickers)
• Mandatory staff training, although stickers not
mandatory
• Launch in Pledge Day (whole school meeting)
each year with a video
What Students Value About
Safe Space and Advisory
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Confidentiality
Not feeling judged
Others sharing their joys and struggles
Consistency of group
Knowing adults care deeply
How to Establish Safety
We have three rules in Safe Space:
1. There’s no attendance requirement; come as often or
as little as you want.
2. What happens here, stays here. Don’t talk about the
group outside of the space unless you’re only talking
with people who were there with you.
3. There are no labels. Being here doesn’t mean you
identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or
straight. It means you care about making our school
safe for all students. You can identify, but you don’t
have to.
How to Establish Safety in Advisory
• Being responsive to the needs of our girls
• Creating a feeling of “coming home”
• Advisory House Rules – “Circle of Trust”
– What is said here, stays here
– Understand others’ perspectives
• Discussions around C2OP3R2 behavior
– What does it mean?
– How do we achieve this
– What does it look like
How do we Turnkey these
Strategies to our Students?
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Teambuilding Activities
Self-esteem building Activities
Problem solving – academic, social, relational
Role play – practice conversations that may be
difficult
Explicit Conversations
Goal setting/Self Reflection
Student Led Conferences
Communication skills
– Listening vs. Hearing
Advisory Activities
• The following foster a sense of camaraderie
amongst the students:
– Holiday Door Decorating Contest
– Advisory Banner Contest
– Holiday and Birthday Celebrations
– Community Service – food drives, Shoeboxes for
Soldiers, toy drive, book drive, breast cancer walk,
Penny Harvest, etc.
– Advisory Trips
Resources
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GLSEN link: www.glsen.org
http://www.makeitbetterproject.org
One by Kathryn Otashi
Bullying and Me : Schoolyard Stories by Ouisie
Shapiro
• Handout of advisory resources from
The Young Women’s Leadership Network