Teen girls spend time every Tuesday at the Nelsonville Family Info Center staying on track and off drugs and alcohol.
Directors of the center's Girl Power program are teaching girls to make positive choices while having fun. Fifty girls, ages 8-18, from Nelsonville, Glouster and The Plains participate in community service, car washes, bake sales and arts and crafts, said Ronda Bentley, director of the Nelsonville program.
Girls can build self-esteem and develop good habits in this program through bonding and creating friendships, said Andy Ellinger, Athens County Children's Services public information officer.
Fifteen-year-old Tiffany Eaton, who has been participating in the program for almost three years, said Girl Power gives girls initiative to achieve their goals.
Many of the girls' families tell them that drugs can ruin their lives, she said.
(Girl Power) helped me stay drug free
Eaton said.
The national program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, encourages girls to find alternatives to negative activities, such as smoking, drugs and drinking, Bentley said.
Jamie Brock, an Ohio University social work major who interns with the program, said adolescent and teen girls begin to rely on their peers rather than parents for guidance.
It gives them alternative things to do; it gives them positive peer relationships and good role models Brock said about the group.
Preventative programs like Girl Power are important because alcohol and drug use are growing problems among teenage girls, said Judith Grant, OU visiting assistant professor of sociology.
When we look at drug abuse among teenage girls the gap (between boys and girls) is already closed
she said. Ten years ago, teen girls were much less likely than boys to use drugs.
Girls use drugs, cigarettes and alcohol for different reasons than boys. Sexual abuse and family problems are common reasons girls begin taking drugs or drinking; they use these activities to cope, she said.
Today, daughters are 15 times more likely than their mothers to begin using illegal drugs. Girls will try marijuana at the average age of 17.2, and boys will try the drug at the average age of 16.7, she said.
John Padget, program director of the Bassett House, a residential treatment facility in Athens for children ages 13-18, said although most kids use marijuana, an increasing number of kids are using over-the-counter drugs, and girls are using pills like Vicodin, Xanax and Oxycotin.
One-third of the clients sent to the Bassett House are girls, he said.
In Nelsonville, inexpensive activities are often limited, Bentley said. Girl Power resembles the Girl Scout organization but has fewer expenses.
Because the program is part of the Nelsonville Family Info Center, it costs a couple hundred dollars a year to maintain, Ellinger said.
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Danielle Trusso
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Ohio University senior Jamie Brock, right, shows photographs to Chrissy Meyers, 10; Megan Amorine, 10; and Tehia Eaton, 14, at the Nelsonville Family Info Center last night. Brock is a social work major who interns for the family center as part of the Gir
