Cape Central program aims to foster Young Women of Excellence

Teenage girls are struggling in ways they've never struggled before.

A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, published in February, showed that 57% of high school girls in 2021 experienced sadness or hopelessness, up 21% from a decade earlier and twice as high as the number recorded by teenage boys. Some 30% of high school girls surveyed said they seriously considered attempting suicide. While some of the elevated numbers appeared to be tied to the COVID-19 pandemic, the data was nonetheless unprecedented.

CDC officials said teen girls are "in crisis".

That context makes the work Jecala Moore is doing at Cape Girardeau Central High School potentially life-saving, and almost certainly life-changing. Moore helps teen girls navigate the figurative land mines of current times. Hired more than a year ago to mentor girls at the school, Moore said she provides encouragement to girls who may have been otherwise "overlooked" or "underserved." She can also connect girls to resources the students may not have been aware of, such as counselors or a social worker employed by the district.

Moore said she provides mentorship to some 50 girls at the school and has launched a program, Young Women of Excellence, now a year old. Young Women of Excellence helps about 15 girls find opportunities to learn life management skills, do uplifting work and activities in their communities and meet female leaders in the area. It also establishes a strong peer group for girls who are seeking to improve themselves.

"What mentoring looks like, without being in the program, is meeting with a young woman once a week," Moore said. "I want to make sure this is something they desire. Most want to be checked on and want to be motivated on a weekly basis. That's what I do a lot of."

Moore said many of the girls she mentors are "just battling with day-to-day confidence. That's huge. Not having a sense of true self-worth or anyone to tell them their worth. I have a lot of young women who don't have the best relationships with their parents. They're kind of the students that are in the cracks that you miss. I have a really close relationship with the social worker we have here. I give her updates on students, and she gives me updates on students, and we move forward with them."

After several months in her mentoring role, Moore initiated the Young Women of Excellence program that goes beyond one-on-one meetings and gives girls opportunities to have more experiences outside the school walls.

"For Young Women of Excellence, my goal is -- through activities and group meetings, taking them to college visits, getting them in the community, volunteering, we've done a few events at the Shawnee Park Center -- to enhance each of the young women's overall wellness."

Moore's position and the Young Women of Excellence program formed from a partnership between Cape Girardeau Public Schools and PORCH, which stands for People Organized to Revitalize Community Healing, led by executive director Tameka Randle. Randle was Moore's mentor while Moore attended Southeast Missouri State University. Randle encouraged Moore to apply for the mentorship role the district was seeking to fill. Young Women of Excellence takes cues from a program out of Lincoln University, which devised evaluations for students who may need some help.

Students who join the program are most often recommended by teachers, but some of them ask to join also. To join the program, students will meet four times with Moore. The girls will begin to journal their experiences. They'll also fill out personal wellness assessments. The students then follow up with Moore if they're still interested. And depending on those factors, parents are called in for a meeting. Moore said even when relationships between child and parent are "rocky" it's still beneficial to include parents in the decision and goals set forth by the Young Women of Excellence program.

Moore, with the help of her first group of Young Women of Excellence, wrote a pledge that each member recites. It states:

Ambitious for those who know

Kind, confident in me with

An asset of intelligence that is so

Enough braveness in me for you to see

Adventurous and excited about

The journey that lies ahead of me

I am humble and unique

A role model when I speak

Uplifting and motivated to

Be the best version of me

As the girls go through the program, they receive certain perks and responsibilities based on their grades. As grades improve, the girls are given more opportunities and awards.

Girls' challenges

Moore said girls face different hardships than boys do. Girls, for example, are more likely to endure sexual abuse than boys. She's mentored girls who have been abused. The CDC states that as many as one in four girls is sexually abused across the United States, compared to one in 13 boys.

The issues extend to home life as well. Moore said she's mentored girls who have been told they will be kicked out of their house when they turn 17.

Such situations can cause crippling anxiety. Moore's role isn't necessarily to provide counseling services -- others in the building handle that type of work. But she tries to help the girls see a path to success and offer them hope. She works with them to form good habits and holds them accountable week-to-week in terms of their academic performance.

She said it's also hard for young women to date and "knowing what friendship is. Guys seem to get it. They have different groups of friends. The young women, they don't necessarily grasp friendship as well. Also, just relationships that are more than friendships; it's hard for them in that area."

Each month, the girls involved in the Young Women of Excellence program focus on one of eight points of wellness. Moore organizes activities and discussions geared toward those topics. Recently, for example, Moore hosted a tea party that was a meet-and-greet with some local businesswomen. The focus was on occupational wellness.

"I invited some women, including Tameka, to come out and talk to these ladies about their careers and, more importantly, their journeys," Moore said. "They left them with words of wisdom. It's funny. I have a great relationship with (the girls). I'm always throwing out these ideas at them, like, 'I'm throwing a tea party.' And they're looking at me like, 'A tea party?' When they actually show up and they do it, they're so happy. After the event, they were like, 'This was one of the best things that we've ever done!' The girls did a good job. They were really engaged. It was awesome."

Such events are designed to educate and motivate. And also to create positive social interactions in safe spaces around encouraging people. The events get girls looking forward when sometimes it would be easier to focus inward on struggles and withdraw from social activities, Moore said.

The events get the girls out of their phones. Social media pressures can complicate how teen girls value themselves. About 30% of teen girls felt Instagram made them feel worse about their bodies, according to widely reported Facebook surveys that were leaked by someone with the company in 2021. Peer-reviewed data and studies have not determined a direct connection between social media and mental health on a large scale, according to reporting by NPR, but Moore said she has discussions with girls about social media. The Young Women of Excellence program encourages social activities, such as the tea party Moore described. But Moore also highly encourages getting involved in personal activities, whether it be sports or other types of clubs or interests.

"That's another aspect of Young Women of Excellence," she said. "I push them to be active here at the school. A lot of these young women, due to their confidence or lack of confidence, they're reclusive. So I push them and I say, 'No, you can do this, too.'"

Dance team

For Moore, dance is a great outlet for girls to get active. For a period of time, Moore majored in dance in college. She taught dance lessons for quite some time. She now coaches the school's dance team.

"With dance, that's been a huge part of my mentoring as well," she said. "Because that's what draws a lot of young women to me first; then we develop a relationship from there."

Moore grew up in different parts of Southern Illinois, attended schools in Cairo and Meridian, but eventually graduated from Sikeston (Missouri) High School. She was part of mentoring programs at the Delta Center, which provided after-school programs, which she said had a positive influence in her life.

She said taking dance classes at SEMO put her in positions where she started interacting with the community, meeting youth who wanted to learn how to dance.

"That's where my desire to become a mentor really started was when I was teaching them how to dance. These young women have so many other obstacles and issues that they're having to go through."

Moore said her goals for the next year are to continue to grow Young Women of Excellence. She said the community can help the program by providing volunteer opportunities for the girls, as well as donating funds to help with some academic incentive programs.

"I'm very faith-based, and I know God will provide," she said.