Girls on Fire camp teaches nearly 100 girls about female empowerment

DOWNEY — The three-day half-day girls empowerment Girls on Fire summer camp is a wrap!

We are ecstatic to have had close to 100 young middle school and high school girls participate. This year’s program took place at Downey High School. This is the first City-District collaboration focused on strengthening the psycho-social-mental-emotional health component of our youth.

We believe strong communities are engaged communities. Partnering alongside our District (we thank Dr. John Garcia, Superintendent, and Roger Brossmer, Assistant Superintendent), for their support, our Police Department, engaging LA County mental health professionals and our local Healthcare providers, the program addressed real issues teen girls may be facing today: cyber bullying, social media addiction, internet crimes, anxiety, depression, body image shaming, self-esteem, peer pressure, healthy relationships, the dangers of sex trafficking, etc.

Through Girls on Fire, our goal is to help prepare our young ladies for success by addressing mental and emotional aspects of growth and development. The program was open to all residents of Downey (middle school-high school age), regardless of school/district attendance.

Giggy Perez-Saab, Downey school board member; Blanca Pacheco, Downey mayor pro tem; Nancy Swenson, Downey school board president; Michael Calvert, executive director of the Downey Chamber of Commerce; and Claudia Frometa, Downey city council member.

We hope that through this three-day workshop, our young ladies in Downey were provided with the tools and strategies to help them navigate the pivotal middle school and high school years more successfully.

Thank you to our wonderful Downey Soroptimist International volunteers for helping. Thank you to our Downey Unified School Board President Nancy Swenson for attending, along with School Board Member Giggy Saab for teaching the yoga class. Thank you to Ellis White from Premier Fitness too. And a very special thank you to our main healthcare sponsor, Kaiser Permanente Downey Medical Center. We are grateful for all the partnerships.

Mayor Pro Tem Blanca Pacheco and I hope to continue this program bigger and better next year!