17 12 2009 - Stepanavan Youth Center (SYC)

Dear friends and colleagues,
Stepanavan Youth Center (SYC) a registered nonprofit organization active in Armenia since 2002 continues the GLOW national girls leadership and empowerment project started in 2007 with the U.S. Peace Corps volunteers. This is a project that shows much promise and SYC together with Peace Corps volunteers is intended to continue investing efforts to make it more sustainable and effective. More information about SYC and the project you can find below as well as in SYC web site www.stepanavanyouthcenter.org. The GLOW project has been highlighted lately by IREX and US Government, here are the links: http://www.irex.org/newsroom/news/2009/0914-epd_glow.asp, http://www.america.gov/st/develop-english/2009/October/20091023163949berehellek8.436221e-02.html
In partnership with U.S. Peace Corps, SYC has started to raise funds for GLOW 2010. We kindly ask you to spread information through your contacts to be able to reach our target $14,844.30 required for GLOW summer school and a number of follow up activities reaching to over 500 girls in regions of Armenia. Here is the link where it is possible to
make secure donation:
https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=305-061
Please note that donations are tax-deductible.
Thanks for your support, with your contribution we can make a difference in Armenia!
Best regards,
Lilit Simonyan
***********************************
Director of Development and International Programs
Stepanavan Youth Center
www.stepanavanyouthcenter.org
Email: syc_ngo@yahoo.com
Phone/fax: +37425623930
Mobile: +37491232545

GLOW girls leadership and empowerment project Girls Leading Our World (GLOW) is a leadership program for young Armenian women, ages 12-16. The program begins with residential summer school, giving 50 participants the opportunity to work in a team based setting to explore topics such as personal development, gender, career planning, health, HIV/AIDS, peer education, and leadership. After the summer school participants hold peer education sessions and small community actions in theircommunities, contribute to the GLOW newsletters, and help organize regional seminars during the year for other young women. Since its start in 2008, GLOW project has 73 alumni and over 800 direct beneficiaries through its follow up activities.
The long term goals are to enhance the role and participation of women and girls in social and political life and in the strengthening of civil society in Armenia.
The short term goals are to promote civic education of girls and women building their self-esteem and confidence, developing personal development and leadership skills, encouraging creative thinking and expression, develop their skills in goal setting, assertiveness and career/life planning; in addition to connecting young women from urban and rural parts of Armenia through networking opportunities and print media.
The objectives of the GLOW project address four main aspects:
Leadership : to introduce and develop communication and leadership skills of participants; to develop and implement interactive activities fostering girls' leadership potential and self-esteem;
Education : to learn and discuss various issues, including domestic violence, women's trafficking, health lifestyle choices, HIV/AIDS, etc.; introduce engaging learning methods to encourage creative thinking and expression
Empowerment : to learn from and interact with strong female role models; to help participants make plans for their future and plan concrete steps on how to achieve them
Sustainability : to create a network of peers to ensure long-term impact; to provide further possibilities for the camp participants for self-expression/development and active citizenship; to organize GLOW camps annually making strong connections between them (e.g. include previous participants as counselors, etc.).
The objectives for GLOW project 2010 are to organize an 8-day residential Summer School in June, 2010 for fifty girls empowering them to take active leadership role in their home communities through targeted leadership and personal development, training on critical health and gender issues. Participants will organize peer educational activities (25 activities anticipated) for their peers (over 200 girls) providing necessary skills, information and tools (manuals). Afterwards, 2 trimester newsletters (600 copies) will be distributed and 9 regional seminars for 250 girls in regions of Armenia will be organized.

L.S-