Mission Statement
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GBLA @ MAHS is committed to a vital objective: to create and promote a safe and harassment-free school culture. We strive to do this through education, awareness, and empowerment so that students do not suffer in silence.
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Project Needs
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To identify the problem, we created a survey loosely based on a survey conducted by Girls For Gender Equity (GGE), which we came across in the book titled, Hey, Shorty: A Guide to Combating Sexual Harassment and Violence in Schools and on the Streets. The questions in our survey ranged from “Have you ever witnessed or experienced sexual violence on campus or in the surrounding neighborhood” to “ What can the community do to help solve this problem, if there is a problem.” In order to have an accurate representation, we held interactive presentations in our library. We invited teachers of different grade levels to bring their classes down for our presentation....
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Process
Throughout our year, the GBLA team at Maywood Academy High School hosted different activities, each being a week long. Our activities revolved around the issue of sexual violence. The activities planned were meant to revolve around informing our students on what is sexual violence. We needed to help them understand the nuances of sexual violence , particularly because most people associate it only with rape when it’s actually much more than physical violence. In order to get our message out to the students of Maywood Academy, each member of the team was in charge of a week of events that spread awareness to the harm of sexual violence. Each event was meant to lead up to the bigger issue we wanted to address.
Outcome
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In Maywood Academy High School, the Girls Build LA team worked with different classes to establish a proper definition of sexual harassment and ensue a better culture of awareness on sexual violence. With a series of different weekly activities throughout the spring semester, we were successful in raising awareness on the impact of sexual violence and how it should be avoided. Our main goal was to empower many to take action against it....
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Reflection
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Working with a sensitive, and sometimes taboo, topic on a school campus is difficult. This difficulty is heightened with there is a completely new administrative team. In general, our goals are to spread awareness on pressing issues such as sexual harassment and violence within our community. As we conducted our project, the more surprising thing was the fact that our results for our sexual harassment survey weren’t so surprising...
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