Coalition Groups (CG)

Sign up for MDI Summer Coalition Groups

Where: Mount Desert Island YMCA, 21 Park Street
When: Tuesdays from 3:30-4:30pm, 06/20-08/15
Cost: FREE!

ABOUT COALITION GROUPS

Our Coalition Groups are facilitated by trained volunteers (Muses) who meet weekly with elementary and middle school girls and nonbinary youth to create a coalition of youth allies. The groups discuss media literacy, gender stereotypes and how to proactively change the culture around them through social action projects. Coalition Group participants are self-identifying girls and nonbinary youth from schools in the greater Bangor, Waterville, and Mount Desert regions. Groups generally meet in their schools during lunch, recess, or occasionally before instruction begins for the day.

Why are coalition groups for girls and nonbinary youth important?

Self-identifying girls and nonbinary youth need a safe space where they can: relax, be uniquely themselves, and speak their thoughts and feelings; experience supportive connections with other youth and with adult Muses; discuss and share common views and goals; feel less alone; discuss and validate a range of feelings, desires, anxieties, and concerns; think critically about stereotypes, unfairness, and hurt; and experience the power of coalition by crossing clique or peer group lines.*

* Adapted from Stronger Together Curriculum by Jackie Dupont and Lyn Mikel Brown

How You Can Help!

If you identify as a woman or a nonbinary person and attend Colby College, College of the Atlantic, or University of Maine at Orono, and are interested in being trained as a Muse, please reach out or come visit us at the activity fair at the start of each school year.

If you are on school staff or are a teacher interested in bringing a coalition group to your school, please email our School-based Program Coordinator, CJ, at cj@hghw.org.

“Since joining this group, I feel more confident about myself, and am able to tell others about my feelings now.” - 6th grader

“I’ve become more confident about who I am, and what I want to become.” - 8th grader

“I identified as a feminist before Hardy Girls, but now I have the tools to think critically about my surroundings.”

Past Participants

Coalition Groups