For the past year we have been promoting work among young women in an attempt to redress the imbalance between the genders often found in youth work.
A recent study of young people and youth provision in Islington identified that the proportion of young men accessing youth provision was far greater than the number of young women. That is because youth provision has traditionally been orientated around the needs of young men.
Girls are the worlds most squandered gift. They are precious human beings with enormous potential, but across the world, they are generally the last to have their basic needs met and the fist to have their basic rights denied. – World visions Girls child report, 2001.
Whilst attending the UYWI conference a couple of months ago I had the privilege of being introduced to Ginny Olson. Ginny is currently the co-director of the Center for Youth Ministry Studies
and assistant professor of youth ministry at North Park University and
Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois.
I've just begun reading her book 'Teenage Girls'
Our adolescent girls aren’t looking for tourists – adults who are only interested in seeing the beautiful spots, taking a few pictures, and then leaving after a short while to go back to their comfortable lives. Rather they are looking for pilgrims who will wade into the muddy adventurous mess of a journey of adolescence with them. Pilgrims who aren’t looking for the comfortable, easy path but are willing to take the hard road of understanding the issues that adolescent girls face, issues that are unprecedented in their magnitude. – Teenage Girls, Ginny Olson
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