Shira Program for Girls – menoring
Shira program for girls is a multiyear program, which seeks to change the social role of young women at risk, by giving them a significant experience of success while providing them with emotional and occupational tools of empowerment, with the view that young women possess the knowledge and authentic power to recreate and change the dialogue on risk, privilege and hardships faced by young women in Israel.
The objective of the Mirrors program is to work with young women for young women so as to allow them and their peers to identify their vast inherent power by virtue of their being young women. We believe that by combining knowledge and research with the authentic and sincere experience of young women, we can give these young women tools to make their voices heard, demand they receive their due rights and influence how they are perceived by society, and offer solutions to young women in Israel.
The program was established by women, from the educational therapy field, with the aim of creating a safe, non-masculine, space, where girls can get acquainted with themselves in a meaningful way, identifying their strengths and weaknesses and understanding the patterns of behavior of significant people in their lives and social-gender roles which either benefit or hurt them. The Mirrors program gives young women tools to become mentors, accompanying and assisting young women at risk, thus fully leveraging their ability to give, their empathy and self-empowerment.
18 young Jewish and Arab women are participating in the pilot program. Over the program’s eight months, the young women will learn to examine their personal lives, choose to focus on their strong points, and identify their weaknesses, undergoing a shared journey that will end with them serving as mentors – providing help at enterprises and municipal organizations that provide solution to the disadvantaged.
Identifying with the program’s values, the Banki family decided to join in. After becoming acquainted with the family and discussing the issue, the young women in the program decided that they would be honored to name the Mirror program’s first class after Shira. The young women expressed their personal connection to Shira as a peer, who, from a young age, worked for others and in disadvantage communities. As a program that aims to help young women experience the mission of change, compassion, power, and help in society, we believe that the connection with Shira is natural and that it can empower the sense of young women’s personal and collective responsibility.