A Mentoring Approach: Girls Light Our Way (GLOW)

• In Event: Benevolent Leadership: A Practice Demonstrated Model for Non-Profit & Faith-Based Leadership

Short Description

This case study integrates the constructs of the benevolent leadership model with the practices of an urban-based nonprofit for girls. Benevolent leadership has provided a useful lens for exploring the commitment and strategy employed by the nonprofit’s founder as she establishes mentoring relationships with the girls.

Detailed Abstract

The Benevolent Leadership (BL) model has four paradigms that, together with their characteristics, provide a useful lens for exploring a community-based work nonprofit that mentors urban girls to encourage lifeskill development. This presentation will explore BL’s paradigms (morality and ethical sensitivity; spirituality and spiritual depth; positivity and positive engagement; and community and community responsiveness) through the case study of this nonprofit.

Girls Light Our Way (GLOW) is a program started specifically for girls. The participants are affectionately called The GLOW Girls. Every year, on the first day of the program, each girl must sign a PROMISE contract that begins with a promise from the founder. The founder will do everything in her power to help them to be better than they ever thought they could be. Among other things, she promises NEVER TO LEAVE THEM. In return, they must promise to do their best, to be their best. They take a vow to maintain self-respect. They must respect themselves and others. They must work hard to get good grades. They must reach out to the founder if they are struggling in a subject, so she can arrange for tutoring.

The mission of the organization is to provide the girls with activities that create learning and tools for mental, physical, and nutritional wellness, self-efficacy, and financial literacy. The goal is encourage them to use these tools to become diplomatic and productive world citizens.

The program works with girls in communities with high intergenerational poverty. According to 247 Wall St., the program is in the worst city for African-Americans (Frohlich, Sauter, & Stebbins, 2016). The participants are traditionally “polyvictims,” who typically live in a constant state of fight or flight at home and at school. The program considers this ecology and works to equip the participants with tools to avoid the intergenerational cycle. There is collaboration with other agencies and professionals in the city to provide various aspects of programming. We employ stewardship and servant leadership within the community.

This presentation will explore how GLOW’s founder employs Benevolent Leadership in her work with the young women. The Spirituality Paradigm and Spiritual Depth characteristics of BL are reflected in her sense of calling to the work, which she does with vigor and passion to glorify God, for the benefit of the “common good.” She also leverages the community paradigm and community responsiveness characteristics of BL in her approach to the work.

The organization has a traditional corporate structure with volunteer staffing and a board of directors. However, day-to-day practices are relatively nontraditional format. Volunteers and participants are followers, however, they are not employees. They do not get salaries or hourly wages. They are not students of the founder nor do they receive grades in a traditional sense. Their “earnings” reflect some of the components of Benevolent Leadership’s Moral Paradigm and Ethical Sensitivity. They “earn” the importance of values such as integrity. The participants come to understand the importance of good character in the midst of an ominous outlook for girls in their particular situation. They are expected to fail. Their circumstances have set them up for failure. Because the stakes are so high, the importance of the Benevolent Leadership approach is intensified.

The essential concepts of the positivity paradigm and the positive engagement characteristics are innovation, dynamic adaptation, vitality and hope. At GLOW, the founder knows it is important to keep the girls excited about upcoming activities. During the summer she engages a local business owner who teaches the girls to swim in mermaid tails. Learning to be “a mermaid” provided a sense of confidence and self-efficacy for the girls, who largely do not know how to swim. It also provided an avenue for physical wellness and selfies.

Knowing that teenagers like to have money to buy things like shoes, clothing, makeup, snacks and gift cards, the founder made systemic program and process changes to motivate and reward the girls for attending events. For example, she describes upcoming mission-based activities to gauge interest. For example, “A pharmacist is coming to tell you about her work. You will have an opportunity to fill mock prescriptions and wear lab coats.” In addition, she uses competition, gift cards, and trendy gifts (i.e. “Hidden Figures”) to encourage girls to attend educational events such as financial literacy workships. Some of the ideas are a bit unconventional. They say, “Ms. Dawn, you be doin’ the most!,” which is their way of acknowledging their nontraditional experiences keep them active and interested.

The end goal is simple. Showing up is 75% of the battle. The other 25% gives them an opportunity to learn something.

Benevolent Leadership’s Morality Paradigm and Ethical sensitivity provide the lenses to address interpersonal skills with the girls. They learn to interact with each other and with adults in a respectful manner. With work, they realize they interact in a safe space with trust, honesty, integrity, and love. The founder and volunteers try to lead by example, and provide them with an avenue to address day-to-day frustrations of life. Through ongoing discussions and sessions led by professional counselors, the girls have access to tools to express themselves and maintain self-control.

The girls face many issues, trials, and traumas, and obstacles to their success. Their situations require more effort across the full spectrum of the Benevolent Leadership paradigms. Their traumas and setbacks require more than mermaid lessons, mock professional sessions, and hugs. They require technical solutions, some serious counseling, and psychological work. The founder has sought cognitively based compassion training and regularly collaborates with counselors and agencies to identify trauma-based counseling. Moreover, knowing her limitations, she collaborates with organizations who provide social-emotional and trauma based sessions in a safe space. These group therapy sessions allow the observation needed to provide an adaptive approach to their situations for conflict management, orientation, and help to shape their new personal norms.

The benevolent leadership framework provides an ideal foundation for this work.

Participant

• Dawn Harris Jeffries, Merrill Lynch