Just because.

FRAMINGHAM PROGRAMMING.

Our school-based program develops the next generation of young leaders and prepares them to be authors of their own stories. We have historically focused our programming on high schools. This year, for the first time, chica project launched a pilot program at a middle school in Framingham, MA. Twenty-nine Fuller Middle School chicas got a chance to participate in our self-empowerment curriculum and discuss topics such as Identity, Culture, Stereotypes, and Self-Love. To hear the wise and profound conversations 11-13-year-old girls have on these subjects is inspiring. The future of young Brown and Black chicas will be founded on the openness and courage to have such conversations.

The poems they wrote on stereotypes began with the words “Just Because” and blew our minds—and touched our hearts.

Here is just one example:

Just because

Just because I’m dark-skinned

Doesn’t mean my mom’s not white

Doesn’t mean I’m violent

Doesn’t mean I’m not good.

Just because I’m bi-racial

Doesn’t mean I’m not black

Doesn’t mean I’m not cultured

Doesn’t mean I don’t belong.

Just because I’m two things

Doesn’t mean I’m both

Doesn’t mean I am neither.

- Kiersten, Fuller Middle School

These girls will leave our program prepared with the tools they need to navigate the obstacles that come with having limited access to education, financial stability, social capital, and political power. These 29 chicas are being inspired, motivated, and equipped to be leaders in their lives, schools, and communities. We will forever be proud to have been a part of their lives.