Twelve young women graduated from Mount Druitt Ethnic Communities Agency’s (MECA) Girl SKILS program in September.
Their successful completion of the program — Smarts, Know-How, Intelligence, Leadership and Strength — was the culmination of nine weeks of effort and dedication towards gaining lifelong interpersonal skills.
MECA’s operations coordinator, Holly Corpe, said each graduate should be highly commended for their demonstrated commitment and engagement.
“By completing this program, each participant has shown that they can find their inner confidence, respect others, understand their emotions and promote healthy relationships,” she said.
“It was pretty fun too!”
The program targeted young women of a refugee background between the ages of 14 and 16, living in Mount Druitt.
“We were particularly interested in supporting young people who may have demonstrated difficulty with settlement, experienced social tension or expressed feelings of exclusion and isolation,” Ms Corpe said.
“These young women were provided with education and mentoring that focused on the development of social and emotional literacy by enhancing the key social and emotional skills.”
One of the participants expressed her gratitude at being involved in the program and said, “The program has given me such great confidence.”
The development of “soft” interpersonal skills enabled program attendees to improve their communication skills, interpersonal problem solving skills, negotiation skills and their ability to deescalate volatile situations.
Overall, the program taught young women how to manage interpersonal conflict with a view to ameliorating some of the social issues that they may be experiencing.
The success of the program and the outstanding achievements of its young participants was the result of the collaborative partnership developed by Mount Druitt Ethnic Communities Agency.
Program partners included Creative Training & Coaching, Westpac Banking Corporation, The Westpac Foundation and Chifley College Mount Druitt.
Ron Coskerie, Regional General Manager, Commercial Banking, Westpac, praised the program, calling it “outstanding”.
Ms Corpe offered special thanks to Claudia Owad from Creative Training, Janene Annables from Chifley College and Mr Coskerie.