PEARLS for Teen Girls, Inc.

About Us

PEARLS for Teen Girls, Inc. is a dynamic and innovative non-profit leadership development organization serving at-risk, primarily African American and Latina girls, ages 10 to 19 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. PEARLS helps girls achieve in school, avoid teen pregnancy, and use their personal power to achieve their goals and dreams. In 2008 PEARLS served 688 girls citywide.

PEARLS believes that every girl is precious with unique gifts and strengths. We also recognize that teen pregnancy and lack of education are huge challenges in Milwaukee that create enormous barriers to girls seeking to reach their full potential. That is why PEARLS has made two important organizational commitments:

1. To increase high school graduation and college acceptance rates among Milwaukee’s girls of color.
2. To work toward the goal set by the United Way of Greater Milwaukee to reduce pregnancy among 15–17 year olds by 46% by the year 2015.

PEARLS offers a totally distinct, custom curriculum that focuses on helping girls build leadership skills like self-reflection, critical thinking, sound decision making, goal setting, clear communication and personal accountability. As a result, PEARLS girls develop a true sense of their personal power and potential and their outcomes are astounding!

• 100% of PEARLS 2009 high school seniors graduated for a fourth year running.
• 100% of 2009 graduates were accepted to college.
• 100% of all PEARLS girls avoided teen pregnancy in 2008.
• In the words of a 2007 PEARLS graduate, currently a junior at UW-Parkside: “PEARLS provided me with the support system I need, community involvement, my first job, leadership opportunities, a safe place, opportunities to grow, and my second home. It makes me very happy to say that I will be the first out of my family to attend college.”

Mission & Vision Statement

PEARLS Mission Statement

PEARLS for Teen Girls is committed to being the community’s signature program for maximizing girls’ self-development. True girl/adult partnerships result in building and living PEARLS attributes:

PEARLS Vision Statement

PEARLS is rapidly becoming known among girls, funders, and public/private entities in our community as “the program” for girls’ self development. The program provides girls with a safe place, skill development and self-esteem building that leads to better life choices and an opportunity to realize their full potential. PEARLS serves at least 600 girls within Milwaukee County. PEARLS serves a diverse group of girls and provides opportunities for all PEARLS girls to mix with other girls who may be different than themselves. PEARLS Alumnae are actively linked to our mission.

PEARLS is staffed by a professional team of diverse, progressive and experienced youth professionals. PEARLS is led by an Chief Executive Officer who brings knowledge, passion and creativity coupled with business acumen to successfully work with girls. The PEARLS Board is informed, accountable and proactively involved in PEARLS initiatives, maintaining a high quality board structure and sustained funding for staffing and programs that remain true to the mission. The organization has an overarching commitment to sustainability in their governance, funding and programming.

The PEARLS program has become the kind of success that when you hear, “I’m a PEARLS girl,” you know this girl is learning how to accomplish her goals and dreams.

Program Overview

PEARLS programs are girls-only, safe-space gatherings that meet once weekly after school, during school or on Saturdays at local schools and youth serving organizations. A typical PEARLS group serves 20 to 25 girls. A typical PEARLS session features a guided conversation led by one highly trained Adult Program Coordinator and an assisting Teen Facilitator. Topics might include school, relationships with family, friends and boys, careers, health or whatever the girls identify as pressing issues for them.

PEARLS addresses the interconnected issues of poverty, teen pregnancy, violence, and lack of educational attainment at their very roots, by working with girls during the critical teen years, when personal choices that are made can have lifelong consequences. PEARLS girls build leadership skills and character traits such as honesty, personal accountability, learning to listen to the viewpoints of others, clear communication, critical thinking about life and its choices and sound decision making. Through PEARLS’ nationally acclaimed Goal Setting Initiative, girls learn a process for setting, working toward, evaluating, and reaching tangible goals. These are all skills essential to success in school, work and life.

PEARLS’ custom-designed Goal Setting Initiative has become a cornerstone of the program and each PEARLS participant has the opportunity to set and work toward at least one personal or academic goal each semester. The full spectrum of the PEARLS program also includes two embedded, evidenced-based curriculums focused on pregnancy prevention and prevention of substance abuse. Additional program elements include ongoing academic support, community field trips, guest speakers, annual College Tour, volunteer Higher Education Coaches and many other unique components.

Current PEARLS sites include: Business and Economics Academy of Milwaukee, Northside YMCA, Silver Spring Academy, St. Joan Antida High School, Tenor High School, Keefe Avenue School, Marshall High School, South Milwaukee Middle School, CEO Leadership Academy, Neu Life Community Center, Milwaukee College Prep, Townsend Middle School, Westside Academy II, and Academy of Learning and Leadership.

Our PEARLS Promise

PEARLS girls recite the PEARLS Promise at each PEARLS gathering:

We are PEARLS girls and we want to be our best selves. All of the girls in this circle are my PEARLS sisters. We are learning how each one of us is precious and unique. PEARLS helps us believe in ourselves by building:

is for Personal Responsibility. I can make a difference!

is for Empathy. I will strive to understand how it feels to walk in your shoes.

is for Awareness. I want to know more about myself and the world around me.

is for Respect. I will value you and your opinions, even if we disagree.

is for Leadership. I want to put my beliefs into action and make this world a better place.

is for Support. I want to help and encourage.

We promise to help each other practice these traits. We want to become role models and powerful women who achieve our goals and dreams.

Thank you all for our precious time together today.

Goal Setting Program

PEARLS Goal Setting Program helps girls build a lifelong capacity to set goals, work an action plan, and achieve goals. It also helps them develop the critical thinking skills needed to assess and understand why or how a goal was NOT achieved, so that plans can be revised and a new course of action set. Most importantly, PEARLS uses its proven effective and nationally recognized Goal Setting program to help girls cultivate the self-reflection and decision-making skills essential to success in school, relationships, work and life. Girls set goals using PEARLS’ custom designed Leadership Compass.

PEARLS Leadership Compass

The compass is a guide that points to the purpose of everything we do in PEARLS. PEARLS girls developed the Leadership Compass as a powerful symbol of their self development (heart, mind, body, and spirit). When we are developing all of the important aspects of ourselves we feel whole and complete, like a pearl! PEARLS 5-point Leadership Compass shows the aspects of our lives that are fundamental to our happiness and well-being:

• Loving Myself: how we feel about ourselves
• Building Relationships with Others: how we relate to other people
• Striving to Achieve: learning throughout life
• Believing the Sky is the Limit: setting stretch goals, dreaming big and creating successful futures, and
• Helping Hands in the Community: giving back by contributing to the community.

College Tour

College Tour Report

PEARLS believes that education is the key to self-sufficiency and success. We also recognize the critical need to provide girls with a vision of the possibilities that exist in the broader world beyond their schools and neighborhoods. Each year, PEARLS hosts a national college tour trip for up to 20 PEARLS girls. The trip is designed to broaden girls’ horizons and open their eyes to new places, ideas and personal options. To learn more about how PEARLS is inspiring girls to dream bigger and aim higher, View our most recent PEARLS College Tour Report. The report includes photos and writings from the girls themselves.

Here is just a sampling of what you will read in the full report:

“This trip allowed me to realize the potential I forgot I had. I have a new perspective on my life and what my future holds.” — Jamisha, Grade 12

“Coming on this college tour has really changed my life. I look at these black colleges and it makes me proud to say that I am African American. The schools we saw on this trip say to me that we can change the world…” — Armonie, Grade 8

“By attending PEARLS college tour I realized that it is possible for African Americans to attend college…I never visited colleges before this trip. Since this trip I see myself making it in life…”   — Tiara, Grade 12

“I am inspired, motivated and determined to do better in school, fill out applications, and keep myself on track…I thank all the people at PEARLS that had something to do with me coming on this tour.” — Denise, Grade 12

“The college tour was life changing…I had planned on going to college and making something big out of my life. But these few days made me really buckle down and get serious, especially since I am a junior and seeing how important it is to fill out scholarship forms and applications.” — Brianna, Grade 11

“The college tour was one of the best things that happened to me in my teenage years.” — Aleesa, Grade 12

“I have never been out of the state before. Without the tour, I could not have learned how the colleges looked or got the perspective of someone who goes there…” — Sammie, Grade 10

“Today at Alabama A&M I learned that the college was founded by a slave. When I saw the river where they washed the slaves (located on campus) and how the slave took his past and changed it into somewhere that somebody can build their future, my perception of the world changed. After being at Alabama, I feel that no matter what you are or what you have, you can change or make a big difference in somebody’s life.” — Ebony, Grade 10

Click here for more information about applying to Attend the College Tour.

Click here to review the most recent College Tour Report complete with photos and writings from the girls who attended.

History

The PEARLS Idea

PEARLS was founded as a totally volunteer effort in 1993 by local entrepreneur and Executive Coach, Colleen Fitzgerald. In the early nineties Colleen was working deeply in the area of leadership development and many of her clients were professional women. Colleen’s work focused on using some of the most cutting edge personal development techniques for helping her clients to tap into their personal power while improving their effectiveness, communication and leadership skills. At the same time, Colleen was feeling her own internal pull to use her skills to serve the community in some unique way.

“I was feeling ready to volunteer,” Colleen remembers, “but I looked around and couldn’t find an existing opportunity that fit my schedule and interests. Being an entrepreneur, I thought “I’m very passionate about each of us tapping our talents and making a difference,’ and then I thought about a wonderful teacher I had in 7th grade who believed in me and challenged me to go beyond where I thought I could go. The two ideas clicked together and I realized that I really wanted to find a way to help girls at that tough age of middle school, when too many of us lose touch with our inherent power.”

The first PEARLS group was launched as an after school opportunity for girls at Jackie Robinson Middle School in 1993. Colleen worked with a small group of girls who were committed to coming together once a week for honest conversations and to build trusting relationships. A primary focus of the group was to offer the girls, most of whom were facing the challenges of poverty and life in the central city, the opportunity to see and believe in their inherent beauty, power and potential. Colleen wanted them to know that no matter what the circumstances in their lives, they had “precious and unique gifts and talents” to share with the world. PEARLS was about giving the girls a place to express themselves, build their confidence and articulate their dreams.

Creating a Process

As the original group was taking shape, lots of national research was coming out about the serious challenges facing girls in our country and calling attention to the fact that too many communities, including Milwaukee, lacked adequate girl-focused programming. Studies showed that to be effective, girls programming needed to be consistent, girl-only and provided in a culturally sensitive safe space. Girls needed intergenerational support, emotional support, support to build self-efficacy, and the opportunity to have a voice in programming — all things offered by the Jackie Robinson PEARLS group. Meanwhile, the response at Jackie Robinson was overwhelming. As the group solidified, Colleen began getting requests to start PEARLS groups in other schools and organizations. She realized that PEARLS could be more than just a group. She, and the girls she was working with, had the makings of an organization.

From the beginning, the PEARLS process was unique, because the girls were invited to be true co-creators of all programming. In the groups, girls were expected to be the directors of the dialogue and to explore the ideas, feelings and topics that were important to them. As PEARLS moved from a single-site group to an organization, girls were a key part of the team. Additional impressive and experienced local youth workers joined the effort, including PEARLS’ current Director of Program Services, Gerry Howze. Together, the team began the work of creating and codifying the PEARLS experience. A small board of directors was formed and early and visionary grants from donors like the Richard and Ethel Herzfeld Foundation allowed the work to take off. By 2000 PEARLS was a full time operation and by 2002 PEARLS officially became a non-profit organization.

“The girls really rolled up their sleeves and worked hard to help create PEARLS,” Colleen says. “The vision, mission, activities and curriculum were all developed with girls at the table.” Meanwhile, PEARLS wanted to develop a process for truly understanding the impact of its unique approach on the lives of the girls. Dr. Daniel Folkman of the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, an expert in youth program evaluation, began working with the team to develop PEARLS distinct Leadership Compass and goal setting process. PEARLS groups were added around the city, including high school groups. PEARLS began to focus on helping girls to envision college and careers and many activities were incorporated to inspire girls to dream bigger.

In 2005 PEARLS published its unique curriculum and completed a comprehensive organizational strategic planning process. The plan incorporated input from the girls, staff, board and community leaders and called for the organization to grow from serving 120 girls annually to 500 by the end of 2008.

In 2006, Colleen Fitzgerald stepped down from her position as Executive Director to resume her coaching and consulting work. As she reflects on her work with PEARLS, her greatest hope is that the organization will continue to thrive and grow, and that girls will be inspired by the power of an idea in the organization itself.

“I want the girls to know that PEARLS is the product of an idea and an example of what any of us can do to help make a difference. PEARLS, as an organization, was just a possibility that in the beginning may have seemed very remote. But each of us has wonderful ideas and if we pay attention to some of those ideas and connect with other people to consider and explore them and do something with them we can create great things!”

In January 2006, Danae D. Davis, JD, was hired by the PEARLS board to implement the strategic plan and to lead PEARLS into a new era. Danae brought with her 25 years of leadership experience in the public and corporate sectors, as well as a lifelong passion for helping women and girls achieve their goals and dreams. Under Danae’s Leadership, PEARLS has grown from serving 120 girls annually to 688 in 2008; added critical new program components; and attracted many new sources of public and private funding. Her vision for PEARLS includes serving thousands of girls and building an entire movement of young women prepared to lead Milwaukee, our nation and the world into a vibrant new future.

To watch a video of Danae Davis, click here.

Staff Contact List

Danae D. Davis, Chief Executive Officer
Danae D. Davis is Chief Executive Officer of PEARLS for Teen Girls. Ms. Davis has more than 25 years of executive level experience in the public and private sectors, most recently serving as Director of Diversity at Miller Brewing Company. She has been a member of the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents since 2003. She is also a member of the Safe and Sound board of directors and is a member of its personnel committee. She holds a JD from the UW-Madison Law School. In addition to her considerable executive skills and experience, Ms. Davis brings to PEARLS a lifetime commitment to helping young women achieve their full personal potential.

Gerry Howze, Director of Program Services
Ms. Howze serves as the direct supervisor of all Program Coordinators, Junior Coordinators and Teen Facilitators and has primary responsibility for PEARLS outcomes evaluation and data management. She is dedicated to innovative youth programming, holds a Bachelors of Science in Human Services, and has been a recipient of the national Humanics award for her personal and professional achievements. 

Kathy Landry, Operations Coordinator
Kathy Landry is a dedicated professional and holds the distinction of being PEARLS first employee. She started working for PEARLS in 2000 and has been with the organization full time ever since. In addition to coordinating office operations, Kathy maintains the organization’s data base, supports the Chief Executive Officer, board and program staff, and manages bookkeeping. Most importantly, Kathy manages PEARLS Volunteer Program and works hard to ensure that volunteers have a positive and meaningful experience.

Michelle Brock, Program Coordinator
Ms. Brock has served as a dynamic PEARLS middle school group leader since August 2006. Prior to joining PEARLS, Ms. Brock had volunteered and interned as a contract employee with PEARLS. In addition, she has over three years as a teen peer educator with Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. Michelle has a bachelor’s degree in human services and received her Masters in Human Services from University of Wisconsin, Platteville in May 2008.

Yvette Dotson, Program Coordinator
Ms. Dotson is the Program Coordinator for the PEARLS Silver Spring Academy intensive pilot site. She has extensive experience in youth and family programming having worked for 12 years at Westside Academy where she served as a Family Advocate. She has particular expertise in engaging parents in youth programs. She holds a BS in Psychology from Upper Iowa University and has specialized training in organizational team building and group facilitation.

Malaika Flenory, Program Coordinator
Malaika Flenory’s passion for helping young people to become positive leaders and successful adults led her to pursue youth work professionally. Before joining PEARLS, she worked as the Student Affairs Coordinator at the Young Leaders Academy Charter School and also worked as the Teen Program Coordinator at COA Youth and Family Centers. Malaika cofounded Signature Dance Company in January 2004 and currently works with her partners to mentor 20 teenaged company members. Ms. Flenory received her Bachelor’s in Human Services with a Criminal Justice focus in April 2009.

Kelly Hennessy, Program Coordinator
Kelly Hennessy is a recent Marquette University graduate. While at Marquette she was a highly engaged and energetic student leader. She worked in the University’s Advancement department and led a number of successful philanthropic projects. In 2008 she served as an intern in the Washington D.C. office of US Congressman Luis Gutierrez. She is passionate about service and understands the power of building understanding through diversity.

Board of Directors

• Danielle M. Clarke, Board Chair
• Laura E. Piotrowski, Board Treasurer, Finance Chair
• Shannon M. Whitworth, Board Secretary
• Andrea Khan, Development Chair
• Maureen Kolb, Governance Chair
• Therese Armbruster
• Laura J. Arnow
• Sharon Canter
• Barbara Faucett

• Raquel M. Filmanowicz
• Stacey Jones
• Dana World Patterson
• Teresa A. Smith
• Jill Hamill Sopha
• Yolanda Thomas
• Leonard E. Wilk
• Ninveh Neuman
• Meg Brzyski Husband

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2100 N. Palmer Street Milwaukee, WI 53212 PH: (414) 265-7555.
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