Arizona Women's Political Caucus

AWPC Tucson Chapter Girl's Leadership Training 1997-2010

The Tucson Chapter of AWPC sponsors an annual two-day Girls' Leadership Training course.

Goals of the Program:

To enhance the ability of 7th and 8th grade girls to maintain and increase their confidence and assertiveness in spite of the cultural pressures they face in their adolescence.
To help girls find and keep their voices in the life of their schools and communities.
To provide girls with an understanding of the difficulties women overcame in order to secure voting rights in the United States.
To enable girls to enter into the political process in their schools and communities.
To present girls with the opportunity to define and speak out on issues that concern them.

Members of the Tucson Chapter have continued to support the program because of the participants' positive evaluation of each training program. Girls who had completed the program believed that the training had been beneficial to them for the following reasons:

They learned how to get their opinions listened to at school and in other communities.
They know how to run for office and to help others run for office. Most of them said they had either themselves run and helped others run for office.
They had learned more about how to work in groups and solve problems.
They liked learning about the history of womens voting rights in the United States.
They learned how to speak in front of people and improved their speaking skills.

All former participants have said they would like to have more leadership training.

Goal Achievements:
The training is held all day on two successive Saturdays in September. Themes of evaluations received from the participants at the close of the second day trend in the following ways:

They enjoyed the program, particularly the group activities and opportunities to speak.
Many had plans to be involved in a community-wide political campaign or to run for school office.
They had plans for using the leadership skills they had identified themselves as possessing.
They would all recommend the training to their friends.

Informal Evaluation:

One teacher contacted the trainers with information that two girls from her school were talking positively about the experience. One girl stated to the teacher that it was the best thing that had ever happened to her. Another participant e-mailed the trainers that she was really energized to be active politically by the training. She thought it was wonderful.

All participants, as mentioned above, have been very positive about the training experience and the attitude of the trainers toward them. They thank their sponsors enthusiastically.

Observations:

In spite of having heavy campaign responsibilities, at least two elected women spend significant time with the girls on the second day of the training. They are received with warmth and attention to their messages. Girls mention them in their evaluations. Girls' attention and participation seldom flags over fourteen hours of training. Given that the participants were 12 and 13 years old, that is a remarkable occurrence. Parents who come drop off and pick up their daughters on the second day usually thank the trainers and the sponsoring organizations and reported the girls' enthusiastic recounting of their earlier experiences.

You may download a copy of the application for the Girls' Leadership Program here (PDF format)

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