EIN: 81-4391734
(360) 878-2043
Olympia, WA
PROGRAM REGISTRATION
Empowerment 4 Girls
  • Programs
    • Empowerment
    • Conscious Minds Conscious Bodies
    • E4G Online
    • CMCB Teacher Training
  • Volunteer
    • Board Member Application
  • Donate
    • Program Donors
    • Sustaining Donors
    • Sponsors
  • Events
    • Solstice Retreat
  • Blog
  • Resources
  • About
  • Programs
    • Empowerment
    • Conscious Minds Conscious Bodies
    • E4G Online
    • CMCB Teacher Training
  • Volunteer
    • Board Member Application
  • Donate
    • Program Donors
    • Sustaining Donors
    • Sponsors
  • Events
    • Solstice Retreat
  • Blog
  • Resources
  • About

Blog

11/9/2018

0 Comments

#MyGivingStory

 
Picture
VOTE FOR OUR ESSAY

YOUR VOTE MATTERS!

Vote for our essay for potential $ prizes to support Empowerment 4 Girls! You can vote once a day until the end of November.

Thank you so much for your time in supporting us!
Jeannine Anderson
Jeannine Anderson, President
Board of Directors, Empowerment 4 Girls

OUR ESSAY
Growing Up Strong

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.
This #GivingTuesday, please consider joining me in supporting Empowerment 4 Girls with a donation. Together we make a difference in the lives of girls, giving them the tools, skills and confidence they need to grow into empowered women. Your contribution, large or small, to core support funding will help to ensuring our ability to provide our life-changing programs to more girls in our Olympia community, and beyond. Together we are raising strong girls and building a stronger community.
Picture
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Search

    Use the search bar to search our database for resources and events.


    Join the Tribe

    Join Our List

    Archives

    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    October 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016

    Categories

    All
    Board Of Directors
    Camps
    Events
    Inspiration
    Media

    RSS Feed

Empowerment 4 Girls
A 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Corporation
​EIN: 81-4391734
Your Privacy / Our Policy
COVID-19 Policy

Board of Directors

Portal

Stay Informed

JOIN THE LIST

Contacts

Kristen Rubis
​Program Director
360-878-2043
hello@empowerment4girls.com
Jeannine Anderson
​Development Director
360-463-6405
admin@empowerment4girls.com
Phil Hyde
Operations Director​
​
p.hyde@empowerment4girls.com

Mailing Address  

9134 Steamboat Island Rd NW
Olympia, WA 98502

Nondiscrimination Policy: Empowerment 4 Girls does not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disabilities, age, status as a veteran, national origin, or any other protected classes, specifically with regard to participants in our programs, employees, board members or volunteers.

We are so grateful for the businesses who generously support us.

2022 Sponsors

Picture
Picture
site design 2020 © Debi Bodett