Participation Type
Panel
Session Title
Session 8.12 Gender and Sexuality
Presentation #1 Title
Readings and Reflections on "Thinking Outside the Girl Box": Teaming up with Resilient Youth in Appalachia
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
Brief Summary: University-based researchers join community-based participants in reading excerpts from and reflecting on our new book— Thinking Outside the Box: Teaming up with Resilient Youth in Appalachia—which tells the story of the Girls’ Resiliency Program in Lincoln County, WV. In addition to co-authors Spatig and Amerikaner, each panel participant is featured as a main character in a chapter of the book. Full abstract: Thinking Outside the Girl Box (Ohio University Press, 2013) is a true story about a remarkable youth development program in rural West Virginia. Based on collaborative research with adolescent girls — and adults who devoted their lives to working with them — Thinking Outside the Girl Box reveals what is possible when young people are challenged to build on their strengths, speak and be heard, and engage critically with their world. The culmination of fourteen years of field research, the book traces the life of the Lincoln County Girls’ Resiliency Program (GRP), a grassroots, community nonprofit aimed at helping girls identify strengths, become active decision makers, and advocate for social change. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the GRP flourished. Its accomplishments were remarkable: girls recorded their own CDs, published poetry, conducted action research, opened a coffeehouse, performed an original play, and held political rallies at West Virginia’s State Capitol. The organization won national awards, and funding flowed in. Today the programming and organization are virtually nonexistent. Thinking Outside the Girl Box raises questions about how to define effectiveness and success in community-based programs and provides practical insights for anyone working with youth. Written in an accessible, engaging style and drawing on collaborative ethnographic research that the girls themselves helped conduct, the book tells the story of an innovative program determined to challenge the small, disempowering “boxes” girls and women are so often expected to occupy.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Linda Spatig, Professor of Educational Foundations at Marshal University where she teaches courses in qualitative research methods, is past president of the Appalachian Studies Association and Associate Editor of the Journal of Appalachian Studies.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Layne Amerikaner is a communications specialist at People for the American Way.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #3
Shelley Gaines is Founder and past Director of the Girls' Resiliency Program
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #4
Ric MacDowell, former WVU faculty member and Extension Agent, has worked to support underserved youth and families for decades. He is currently collaborating with Shelley Gaines to create a Day Care Center / Learning Lab and an Early Childhood Certification Program at Lincoln County High School.
LeAnne Olson is an Instructional Specialist and Coordinator of Peer Tutoring at Mountwest Community College in Huntington, West Virginia.
Cassi Adkins is working on a nursing degree from St. Mary’s School of Nursing in Huntington, WV.
Ashley Williams is working as a customer service representative at Amazon.com.
Readings and Reflections on "Thinking Outside the Girl Box": Teaming up with Resilient Youth in Appalachia
Corbly Hall 117
Brief Summary: University-based researchers join community-based participants in reading excerpts from and reflecting on our new book— Thinking Outside the Box: Teaming up with Resilient Youth in Appalachia—which tells the story of the Girls’ Resiliency Program in Lincoln County, WV. In addition to co-authors Spatig and Amerikaner, each panel participant is featured as a main character in a chapter of the book. Full abstract: Thinking Outside the Girl Box (Ohio University Press, 2013) is a true story about a remarkable youth development program in rural West Virginia. Based on collaborative research with adolescent girls — and adults who devoted their lives to working with them — Thinking Outside the Girl Box reveals what is possible when young people are challenged to build on their strengths, speak and be heard, and engage critically with their world. The culmination of fourteen years of field research, the book traces the life of the Lincoln County Girls’ Resiliency Program (GRP), a grassroots, community nonprofit aimed at helping girls identify strengths, become active decision makers, and advocate for social change. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the GRP flourished. Its accomplishments were remarkable: girls recorded their own CDs, published poetry, conducted action research, opened a coffeehouse, performed an original play, and held political rallies at West Virginia’s State Capitol. The organization won national awards, and funding flowed in. Today the programming and organization are virtually nonexistent. Thinking Outside the Girl Box raises questions about how to define effectiveness and success in community-based programs and provides practical insights for anyone working with youth. Written in an accessible, engaging style and drawing on collaborative ethnographic research that the girls themselves helped conduct, the book tells the story of an innovative program determined to challenge the small, disempowering “boxes” girls and women are so often expected to occupy.
