Girls Star Inc. is a community, non-profit organization founded in 1997 dedicated to providing programs for all girls at no cost to schools. These peer mentoring programs offer opportunities for leadership, mentoring, education, support, personal growth, and community service while empowering girls to make healthy choices.

More than 900 middle and high school girls have successfully participated in Girls Star Inc. programs in Chester County. Girls Star Inc. is currently offering two programs:

Kaya Kin is an organized, after school-based, ten week mentoring/support group available to middle and high school girls. Kaya Kin gatherings are confidential, voluntary, structured groups consisting of approximately 16-20 girls, two adult facilitators, and four trained student mentors, who are usually two years older than the mentees. Mentoring groups have proven to be an innovative and effective way to directly address the needs of adolescent girls by:

• Supporting and empowering girls to trust, listen, and act on their own ideas, feelings and beliefs – an antidote to negative peer pressure
• Providing an environment where healthy, trusting relationships are established between girls and adult facilitators
• Enabling girls to feel their innate sense of self and builds self-esteem, to feel valuable, capable and trustworthy
• Teaching girls to engage in responsible behaviors
• Assisting girls in developing empathy for others

Stop Girl Bullying (helping bullies feel, targets deal and witnesses get real) is an organized five week program that can be delivered after school or during the school day. Stop Girl Bullying teaches skills to end the culture or relational aggression, meanness and self-criticism among girls and empowers them not to become victims of domestic abuse and/or to be able to recognize a healthy relationship and make changes.