HER WORDS
About Her Words
Her Words is an after school mentoring program that offers free workshops on the arts, expressive writing, and wellness for middle school girls and gender-expansive youth, many of whom are from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds. These weekly workshops provide a reliable and safe forum where participants examine issues facing them, share experiences, and challenge negative influences in their lives. Together they work through a range of concerns by reading, writing, creating artwork, and performing in a culminating event.
Her Words helps participants build a variety of important skills including English language literacy, critical thinking, communication, problem solving, collaboration, and perseverance. Participants come away with improved self-esteem, increased capacity to adopt healthy behaviors, and the ability to positively transform their lives.
Her Words 2024-2025 Recap
Her Words participants at Morristown’s Frelinghuysen Middle School had an action-packed year with sessions focused on creative writing, podcasting, and art activities including Zentangle and self-portraits. Additionally, each session kicked off with a check-in where the students had the opportunity to express how they were feeling and discuss issues facing them. The program culminated with a Showcase in June where participants read aloud the poetry and short stories they worked on throughout the year. The group were all very strong writers and it showed in these projects which focused on complex themes ranging from cultural appropriation to growing up.
In addition to these exciting accomplishments in Morristown, Her Words was launched at Dover Middle School in January. Similar to the sessions at Frelinghuysen Middle School, these meetings featured writing, visual art activities, and check-ins with discussions around anxiety, self-esteem, and navigating friendship. In both Morristown and Dover, participants expressed that Her Words increased their self-confidence and that they’re looking forward to returning to the program for the 2025-2026 school year.
