Margaret's Place: A School- Based, 'Safe Space' for Youth

Our programs include individual & group counseling, Peer Leadership, the YES (Youth Empowered to Speak) anti-violence curriculum, school-wide campaigns, and school and community workshops and outreach. Last year we did a "Words Are Power" campaign led by our program Peer Leaders. we built awareness about the power of words to harm and heal. A graduate Peer Leader from one of our programs came and performed spoken-word poetry along with another adult local poet, La Bruja. The poems performed focused on healthy realtionships with others and with onesself. Through the performance students were engaged in thinking about the responsibility that we all have to speak up when we or someone we know is experienceing violence or abuse. It also showed that words have the power to heal, to unite, and to create change. The campaign included other activities that continued the dialogue about the theme. Our social workers and counselors reported that the campaign united students and inspired students to express their own thoughts and feelings about their lives. One student dropped off a poem about his experience with bullying and asked if it could be hung up on the outside bulletin board for others to see, other students referred themselves or a friend to counseling to discuss their own experience with violence and abuse, and students were requesting more of our campaign bracelets so that they could give them to friends and family members. Through intervention and prevention we seek to bridge this understanding and create leaders that spread our empathic and empowering messages.