SOUTH SHORE — An effort aimed at helping at-risk girls is looking for mentors, preferably college seniors or professional women.
SponsorLove Community Service Foundation, a nonprofit which will launch a fall program on Monday, is seeking five female mentors to volunteer for its free Teen Girls Empowered Through Action (TGETA) program.
The program focuses on middle and high school girls at the Rebecca K. Crown Center in South Shore. While the typical girl in the program is African American, mentors need not be black, said Amber Stone, founder and executive director of the foundation.
"Most, if not all, of the girls in the program are black and having a mentor who could closely relate to them is what we would like," said Stone. "But by no means are mentors restricted to being black."
Duties include developing a lesson plan or mentoring activity once a week for three to four girls and assisting the program coordinator. Applications are available here.
Interested volunteers should plan on attending a community meeting from noon to 1 p.m. Saturday at the Roosevelt Branch Library, 1101 W. Taylor St. Mentors chosen for the program would attend a training session from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday at the University of Illinois-Chicago, 1640 W. Roosevelt Road.
The seven-week program, which ends Dec. 18, will be held at the Crown Center, 7601 S. Phillips Ave. from 4:30-6 p.m. Middle school girls will meet on Mondays and high school girls meet on Wednesdays.
Interested girls should email their completed application by Friday to TGETA@sponsorlove.com.
The goal of the program, said Stone, is to provide girls with self-empowerment and to continue it each semester.
TGETA provides what the organization calls "enriching skill-building workshops" so young women can learn "what it takes to be successful in the classroom and effective leaders in their community."
On Monday, another program also begins for high school students. The six-week After School Radio program will meet once a week from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Kennedy-King College's WKKC radio studio in Englewood.
