By Jeannine Anderson

I grew up on the border between poverty and lower-middle class. Sometimes there was plenty, of money, food, clothes, whatever, to meet our needs; sometimes not. Still, as a family we were generous and always had enough to share with someone in greater need than us. That goodwill and kindness, shared among a community, have stuck with me as a guiding life principles. It’s part of why there are warm, loving memories of family and childhood. I am a survivor of physical and emotional abuse experienced for over a decade of my youth, inflicted by family members and others. This is why there are also hard, painful memories of family and childhood.

Financial and domestic insecurity is traumatic, especially at a young age, and creates a fracture in your sense of self-worth that can continue to grow and hold a person back for life. Or it can be healed, like a piece of Kintsugi, the Japanese art pottery repaired with lacquer and precious metal dust. As a philosophy, Kintsugi embraces breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise; leaving a newly whole piece, beautifully held together with care and skill. This art and philosophy symbolize my personal life journey to heal and repair my breakages with love, hard-heart work, compassion and joy, lacquered together with sweat and tears.

There are lots of repairs, and still there are breaks along the way as I navigate life. It is the journey we are all on. To this day I work to unwind the complex knot of feelings and memories that come up with every instance where the pandemic of abuse in our world is highlighted, whether by uplifting movements or depressing events in the news and on social media.

I was gifted with a keen sense of internal strength and parents who, despite their shortcomings and dysfunctions, instilled in me a sense that I could do anything I set my mind to. I set my mind to surviving my childhood circumstances and getting out as soon as I felt capable of going it alone. I got in to work study programs in school when I was 14 and stayed with it until I was 18 and graduated from high school. By then I had the education and finances I needed to leave my hometown and strike off into the world to explore life, get a job, meet a new community. That early strength and confidence, even in the face of the concurrent abuse and trauma, helped me develop the self-care talents needed to move forward in life, patch and repair myself, evolve and grow from a frightened, damaged, confused, timid child into an empowered woman capable of loving and caring for myself, my family, friends and community.

Empowerment 4 Girls programs inspire me to volunteer my time as an officer of the board of directors, because our programs help grow strong girls who develop core life skills while they discover their own authentic power in a safe, fun, nurturing, and supportive environment. They don’t have to go it alone.

Working in Camp with other girls, our camp leaders and guest speakers, they learn that they can take care of themselves, do anything they set their hearts and minds to; that they can heal and repair life’s inevitable damages, and support and nurture others through those processes as well.

Empowerment 4 Girls program of day camps works with girls ages 9-16 to:

• Educate them about what it means to take care of and value ones’ self and others and the relationships we build throughout our lives;
• Inspire them to develop skills and habits that support and nurture their physical, emotional and mental well-being; and
• Empower them to be advocates for themselves and others, and their community to help build a more conscious, compassionate future.