Gold Award Spotlight: The Next Step
Here’s a Girl Scout who is paving the way for a better tomorrow! Girl Scout Ambassador Mary earned her Gold Award by completing a project she titled, “The Next Step.” Mary created an online video series that is geared toward female domestic violence survivors which details life skills with the intent of developing viewers’ confidence throughout the program.
Mary began her research by working with Leslie Jingluski of the Avalon Center, a regional nonprofit organization that works to end domestic and sexual violence by breaking the cycle of abuse through prevention, education, shelter, and support services in Williamsburg and Middle Peninsula communities. Before starting her project, Mary wanted to understand the needs of survivors and to get the information necessary to make informed decisions when creating her own program. To do so, she completed eight training modules offered by the Avalon Center that covered topics from setting boundaries to recognizing abuse.
“Through my research, I learned that the root cause of missing life skills in domestic violence survivors is isolation of the survivor by their abuser. The isolation prevents the acquisition of basic life skills,” Mary said, “It was necessary to address this issue in a respectful way that honored the dignity of the target audience.”
She went on to create a YouTube video series, named The Next Step, which includes nine video lessons. Wells’ video lessons cover life skills topics like how to jump a car, how to replace door locks, how to snake a drain, and other tasks survivors may need to know.
“This project is meant to empower survivors by giving them the information needed to fix things around the house,” Wells stated.
The Avalon Center periodically released Mary’s videos in their e-newsletter to subscribers. She met her initial goal of reaching 100 video viewers and her YouTube channel is publicly available for viewing.
