Girls Mentoring Project – CORE Grant

United Way of the Quad Cities’ African American Leadership Society (AALS) formed to address the opportunity gap in our community. African-American students in the Quad Cities lag behind their peers at every educational benchmark: school readiness (13% gap), reading proficiency (30% gap), middle school attendance (9% gap), and high school completion (7% gap). To address these gaps, AALS has selected a single school – Madison Elementary in Davenport – for a pilot project that coordinates an array of community services on behalf of the school’s African-American students and their families. The ultimate goal is to provide stability in the students’ lives so they can benefit more from the education they receive. This new program is based on a successful mentoring program for 4th and 5th grade boys and will provide these elementary aged girls with an adult African-American female mentor. The mentors serve as role models of what it means to be an educated, successful, African-American woman.
The program will feature presentations and discussions about various topics, including self-image, personal responsibility, and the media’s portrayal of women. This group will take field trips to sites throughout the Quad Cities in order to broaden these students’ knowledge of the world and the variety of career options open to them.