Abstract
What is the definition of a successful youth development program? How is success measured? What programmatic elements are vital in order to have a significant impact on participants? What are reasonable expectations to set for staff members involved? The mother–daughter duo behind the writing of Thinking Outside the Girl Box: Teaming Up with Resilient Youth in Appalachia set out to answer these questions and more through their qualitative research of the Girls’ Resiliency Program (GRP), a rural youth program in impoverished Lincoln County, West Virginia. Although the program ended in 2007, Spatig and Amerikaner are quick to emphasize that the GRP’s lack of sustainability and measureable quantitative outcomes don’t, in their opinion, denote a lack of success. Nonetheless, by exploring, through collaborative ethnography, the experiences of participants and staff, the authors do a rigorous job of revealing the many challenges the program faced that made its long-term survival difficult and its demise inevitable.
The story of the GRP is, in a sense, the story of youth development programs nationwide. The program provided arts and volunteer activities, after-school peer discussions and excursions, teambuilding exercises, and political activism to empower adolescent and teenaged girls, and help them overcome poverty and debilitating Appalachian stereotypes. The GRP faced challenges not uncommon to many girls’ programs operating in a culture resistant to their design. An overreliance on the GRP’s founder, the rapid expansion of the program, the reduction in funding, the passivity of the board, an overworked and sometimes ill-equipped staff (many of whom were former participants), and demands to expand the program to boys all contributed to the GRP’s end. The authors, however, do not analyze these challenges, which results in the reader sometimes making assumptions about the particular dynamics of these situations.
The book is overwhelmingly supportive of the GRP’s efforts, but there is one aspect of its programming the authors found lacking: Its choice not to include an educational component. Spatig and Amerikaner recognize (perhaps more than GRP’s designers did) that no matter how much confidence is created in teambuilding and creative arts activities, none of these are a substitute for girls’ educational success. In particular, a college education, they remind the reader, is the number one determinant to an individual moving from poverty into the middle classes. Even those participants in the GRP who set college as a goal faced significant barriers in high school, not only because of unstable homes and financial challenges but also because their school lacked resources and support to assist them when they struggled academically. This was further exacerbated when the girls applied to college and weren’t provided adequate financial aid counseling. In some instances, this resulted in individuals losing essential grants and scholarships.
Spatig and Amerikaner express doubts about another program’s ability to replicate the GRP, but the story of the program is helpful nonetheless. The authors emphasize their desire to write a book that transcends the academic, attracting a wider audience, and in this they’ve succeeded. Whether the reader is an academic, a youth worker, or a layperson, Thinking Outside the Girl Box should appeal to anyone who cares or wants to learn more about girls’ development. It also reminds readers that in order to improve the lives of impoverished women and girls, the continued development and support of programs like the GRP is critical.