FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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Jack Taylor
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Girls Circle Association, Sonoma County to Offer
First Mother-Daughter Circle Training, July 22 in Santa Rosa, CA

New Program to Promote Healthy Bonds between Mothers,
Daughters during Transitional Years of Adolescence

Santa Rosa, CA, - Girls Circle Association, the leading U.S. developer of gender-responsive, research-based support programs for adolescent girls, is now registering participants to attend the first one-day training workshop from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., July 22 for its new Mother-Daughter Circle program. The workshop will be held at the Sonoma County Water Agency in Rooms B and C, 404 Aviation Blvd., in Santa Rosa, CA. To register, call 707-794-9477, or visit www.girlscircle.com. Sonoma County is hosting the workshop.

Attendees for the first time will learn to facilitate and implement the Mother-Daughter Circle program, which was developed from the widely-acclaimed Girls Circle model, a proven method of promoting positive social growth and development among girls.

“We have wanted to develop a Mother-Daughter Circle program for many years,” said Beth Hossfeld, MFT, one of the founders of the Girls Circle program, “because we learned over and over again from the girls that their relationships with their mothers are of great concern to them.”

The Mother-Daughter Circle program will introduce its own new activity guide, “The Heart of the Matter,” in which mothers or female care givers and their daughters will join together in an eight-week program in combined and age-appropriate groups to strengthen their bonds through shared listening, creative expression and skill building.

Groups of eight to 10 mothers and daughters will come together once each week to promote empathy, communications skills, stress reduction, to set limits and honor boundaries, explore meanings and messages about female identity, identify relationship accountability and experience affirmation together and within their broader female community.

“Because the core focus of this group is the relationship between mother and daughter, the program will primarily serve girls from 11 to 18. We really hope middle school girls and their mothers or female caregivers will take advantage of all that this group can offer in the way of empowerment, understanding, confidence and skills. Age 11 to 18 is ideal for a Girls Circle approach with girls and moms,” Hossfeld said.

The Mother-Daughter Circle program was created by Hossfeld and Giovanna Taormina, developers of the Girls Circle model that began in 1994.

Girls Circle is a structured support group for girls age 9 through 18 that offers skills to counteract negative social pressures and foster personal growth. It offers a social framework in which girls can openly discuss risky social behaviors, while learning to improve their self-image and interpersonal relationships. Hossfeld and Taormina formed the Cotati, CA-based nonprofit Girls Circle Association in 1997, providing training and materials for those serving girls.

Rated “a promising approach” by the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Girls Circle provides a setting in which small groups meet one to two hours weekly for eight to 12 weeks or more. The Girls Circle program is currently being utilized by the Sonoma County Probation Dept. as the gender-responsive model for its Circles Across Sonoma program. Now in its third year, the Circles Across Sonoma program has had a significant positive impact on the teenage girls who have completed the program. These girls report increased trust in their facilitators and a greater ability to communicate their concerns to adults. Girls Circle also is utilized around the world by over 5,000 schools, juvenile justice, mental health, child welfare, public health and youth serving organizations. National studies have recognized Girls Circle’s success as follows:

• Decreases in self-harming behaviors and alcohol use
• Increased attachment to school
• Increased self-efficacy
• Improved body image
• Increase in positive peer interaction and peer selection
• Increase in communicating needs to adults

About Girls Circle
As mothers with a passionate vision to foster healthy relationships and choices within their daughters and other girls’ lives, founders Giovanna Taormina and Beth Hossfeld, MFT, created the first Girls Circle group. Recognizing the impact of their first Girls Circle and responding to the needs in their communities and beyond, they launched training programs in 1997 that have helped more than 5,000 organizations across the nation successfully implement the model. Over the past 11 years, the Girls Circle approach has been implemented with girls across every socioeconomic, geographical, ethnic, religious population, and sexual orientation. The strengths-based, skill-building approach creates a safe space to address risky behaviors, build on protective factors, and improve relationships in a format that interests and engages girls. Direct service providers attend trainings or can purchase the materials in order to implement this sustainable model within their current programming mix. Additionally, the model is endorsed by the U.S. Dept of Justice as “a promising approach” and is recommended in their Model Programs Guide. For more information, visit www.girlscircle.com.

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