An Aurora girls’ empowerment group that started over Zoom during the pandemic is giving young Black girls the tools they need to transition into college. Yvonne Boose visited them during a recent honorary performance.
They met on a recent Saturday to honor a longtime Aurora resident at the Grand Boulevard Center in Aurora.
100 Girls Like Us is a nonprofit that works to boost confidence in girls ages 5 through 17.
“Once they pass the age of 17, and we say 17 because they're getting ready to go to college at that point,” said Linda Jones, the founder of 100 Girls Like Us. “So, by then they should have learned a lot of core values, personal development, should have, you know, kicked in by now, and they're ready for college.”
On that day, most of the girls wore camouflage miniskirts and white t-shirts with gold lettering that read “A Beautiful Life.” They’re practicing moves for a performance to honor Avis Miller — a retired teacher and community advocate. Miller founded Taking Back Our Community, a group that focuses on enhancing the quality of life in the neighborhood.
“She has fought for us to actually have this building and come in each week to perform,” Jones said, “and to practice and to build our core values and our girls without having to pay anything. And she's just been amazing.”
Jones started 100 Girls in 2020 because, she said, many girls, especially girls of color, need guidance.
“Girls come in a lot of times with issues. It could be depression, [it] could be anxiety, [they could] have problems at home, and we let them know that this is a safe place,” she explained. “The performance part of it is just maybe two to three percent and that's just to get other girls interested.”
Kyla Harden, 11, has been with the group for a year. She joined because some of her friends are members.
“Miss Linda would have me sing in front of a lot of people," she said, "and that boosted my confidence a lot. So, like, I'm not as scared to sing in front of people anymore.”
Vanessa Adu, 15, has been a part of the group for five years.
“I do dance, and I feel like Miss Linda's helped me a lot with that, with my confidence in it,” she said. “I was so shy.”
Vanessa said she took trips to New York and California to dance in different programs. This summer she performed as Peter Pan in Aurora’s Prisco Center Summer Dance Concert.
Vanessa said Jones builds confidence by talking to them, having them write posters with positive messages and teaching the girls how to respectfully interact with each other.
Vanessa’s mother, Carlarta Ratchford, said this group has inspired her daughter to build relationships and believe in herself.
“It can truly help them develop from the inside out, because as mothers, we can't do it all, she added. “So sometimes it takes someone else to say the same thing we said, and they turn out to be, you know, listening to that and thriving in that.”
When the girls transition out of the group, they are awarded a scholarship for college.
Jones said right now the group can have up to about 30 girls at a time, but the original goal was to impact over 100 girls in the first five years. She said they can’t take that many girls at once.
“Because we have very small staff," she said, "but so many girls are interested in what we're doing. I see this going on for years and years, you know, even after I'm gone."
The girls danced their way through about four songs and afterwards they greeted Miller, the community advocate, with flowers.
100 Girls Like Us performs at many different events across the city. They also hold their own events. The next will be a fashion show in November.
