Holiday Fund 2005: Girls Club guides local children's journey to womanhood Holiday Fund 2005: Girls Club guides local children's journey to womanhood (December 14, 2005)

By Andrea Gemmet

Almanac Staff Writer

After spending a few minutes hearing the cheerful clamor that fills the Girls Club of the Mid-Peninsula, the abrupt silence is as unsettling as an air-raid siren. The girls, who usually can be found practicing the piano, finishing up homework, taking a dance class or just decompressing after school, had disappeared, leaving behind an eerie silence marred only by an occasional stifled giggle

"I think this is the quietest it's ever been here," observes Pat Foster, the club's executive director, smiling as she strides past a cluster of girls crouched behind the kitchen island, anxiously waiting to start the surprise party. The squat brown building erupts the moment the birthday girl walks through the door and soon the busy din in the clubhouse resumes.

The Girls Club of the Mid-Peninsula, which sits on the border of Menlo Park's Belle Haven neighborhood and East Palo Alto, is a haven on the treacherous path to adulthood for girls in grades 1 through 8.

The after-school program provides healthy snacks, books and a quiet corner to read them in, access to computers, homework help, enrichment activities and mentoring.

During the summer, an all-day program is offered. The roundish building, modeled after an African village, holds a large dance studio, a couple of computer labs, an open kitchen and several smaller rooms where girls can retreat to talk, read, do homework or play the piano.

The single-sex environment allows girls to take on leadership roles, as well as freeing them from the distractions and constraints of being around boys, Ms. Foster says. They don't have to compete with boys for attention, and they don't need to shy away from asking frank questions about puberty and sexuality in the health and wellness program the club offers.

The club also tries to provide for the girls' emotional needs, from the universal -- navigating adolescence and resolving conflicts with friends -- to the serious problems that plague their neighborhoods, Ms. Foster says.

"Many of the girls have been traumatized by all the homicides," she says. Most of the violent deaths in East Palo Alto this year occurred nearby, and if the deaths didn't affect someone the girls knew, chances are they have seen a crime scene or a body, Ms. Foster says.

Group leaders help the girls to talk about it, and sometimes bring in professional grief counselors, she says.

The Girls Club serves 220 families a year, and has a waiting list so long that Ms. Foster says she doesn't like to talk about it. Funding has come up short this year, and in order to survive on $300,000 instead of $400,000, only 27 families are able to send their children to the Girls Club, instead of the 50 that the club is usually able to accommodate at one time.

"It's quite painful. There are so many girls wanting to be here, and they cannot," Ms. Foster says.

"Especially for the girls who live around here," adds Natalie Seer, the program director. "Every week they come in and ask, 'Is there a place for me yet?'"

The Girls Club charges a token $10 a week to families that can afford it, but even with the help of volunteers who lead classes and serve as mentors, the annual cost is between $2,000 and $3,000 for each girl, Ms. Foster says.

While they would like to serve more girls and provide activities on a consistent basis, at the moment Ms. Foster and Ms. Seer are most concerned with keeping the doors open.

"We have enough money to last until February. We've been going from month-to-month. It's very, very scary," Ms. Foster says. "Natalie keeps telling me, 'I don't want to be the one standing at the door and having to tell 27 families that their girls can't come here anymore.'"

Ms. Foster, a member of the East Palo Alto City Council, has been with the Mid-Peninsula Girls Club for five years, and says that fundraising takes up virtually all of her time.

While she's grateful for the support of many service groups, including the Palo Alto Junior League, Links, and the Palo Alto Kiwanis Club, she's frustrated by foundations that make grants for three years and then expect a nonprofit organization to become self-sustaining.

"Please tell me how," she says. "Our population is not going to change."

Most of their families have both parents working one-and-a-half jobs and making $8 an hour, she says.

She and Ms. Seer are cultivating a list of individual donors, hoping to assemble a group of people willing to commit to monthly pledges, Ms. Foster says. They'd like to have at least half a year's budget in the bank and be able to bring back popular programs like video production and sewing, she says.

Unlike other after-school programs, the Girls Club is not for drop-ins -- the girls are expected to be there every day.

There are two women on the staff and Ms. Seer's position is funded by a one-year grant from the Junior League. While the volunteers are invaluable, the children need the consistent relationships they have with the staffers who serve as their group leaders, Ms. Foster says.

The program gets results, she says. The girls are doing well in school, thinking ahead to college, and seeking out more help with their homework and more time with mentors and tutors.

"That's very satisfying," Ms. Foster says.

Gifts to the Holiday Fund help the Girls Club of the Mid-Peninsula. Contact the Girls' Club of the Mid-Peninsula at P.O. Box 50069, East Palo Alto, CA 94303; by calling 322-0543; or online at GirlsClubMidPeninsula.org.

E-mail a friend a link to this story.