Bianca Myrick

“You GLOW GIRL is a collaborative, regional approach with schools and the nonprofit organization Pretty Purposed which was founded by a Chesterfield County Public Schools teacher. The mission of Pretty Purposed is to inspire communities to empower girls and young women. As a small, teacher-led, grassroots nonprofit, Pretty Purposed has leveraged its relationships with schools and community partners to empower Black and brown girls to be the best version of themselves through social emotional learning circles, one to one and group mentoring, its inaugural advocacy cohort, curriculum development, and coalition building. Local educator, Bianca Myrick is proposing to scale and expand the work of social emotional learning by implementing ten Pretty Purposed circles across districts to include the rural school districts of Sussex and Dinwiddie, the inner city district of Petersburg, and underserved schools within the large county of Chesterfield. Pretty Purposed SEL circles include 8-12 participants and are led by one-two facilitators during or after school on a weekly basis. Participants learn social emotional learning competencies such as self awareness, self-regulation, self management, and responsible decision making through the resiliency building curriculum (Girls Circle) that Pretty Purposed has modified and adapted to its programming. Girls would gain exposure to role models that look like them, and build positive relationships with adults. Research shows that social emotional learning, mentoring, and just one positive relationship with an adult drastically reduces the impact of adverse childhood experiences and positively impacts academics and attendance rates, leadership skills.”