AAUW's Sister-to-Sister Summits bring together diverse girls to address issues that schools often cannot adequately address. The AAUW Educational Foundation's The AAUW Report: How Schools Shortchange Girls labeled these issues — such as sexual harassment, violence, early sexual activity, substance abuse, and body image — the "evaded curriculum." AAUW collaborates with girls as well as school administrators, teachers, counselors, local groups, and parent-teacher organizations to plan the summits and pursue follow-up activities.

Sisters in Action, funded by the AAUW Educational Foundation and designed to build on local AAUW Sister-to-Sister Summits, was launched in 2001. While Sister-to-Sister provides a forum for adolescent girls to discuss topics that concern them, Sisters in Action extends the work beyond a one-day summit, providing girls with multiple opportunities to address and negotiate the many issues that they face on a day to day basis.

Overview
Why a summit?
Planning a summit

Overview

Synergy. That’s what happens when women share their ideas and opinions. American Association of University Women members since 1881 have witnessed the results. Now, so can girls.

Through local conferences, AAUW branches and states have launched a nationwide dialogue among girls. We aim to help girls build a network and strengthen their voices, sister to sister.

AAUW’s Sister-to-Sister Summits is bringing together diverse girls to address issues that schools often cannot adequately address. The AAUW Educational Foundation’s The AAUW Report: How Schools Shortchange Girls labeled these issues — such as sexual harassment, violence, early sexual activity, substance abuse, and body image — the “evaded curriculum.”

The AAUW Reportand subsequent Foundation research revealed that the evaded curriculum is inextricably linked to education. Teen girls who use drugs, fear violence, become preoccupied with their physical appearance, join gangs, or get pregnant cannot take full advantage of the educational programs available to them.

Yet societal messages glamorizing sex, smoking, alcohol, and thinness pervade our culture, reinforced by peer pressure to experiment with risky behavior. Sister-to-Sister Summits, organized by AAUW members in towns, counties, and states across the country, are bringing these issues to light, letting girls express themselves and propose strategies to address their common concerns. Each summit results in a platform for action—a consolidation of concerns and steps toward solutions.

AAUW is uniquely positioned to undertake these summits. The Educational Foundation’s research provides extensive insight into the complexity of girls’ school lives and models for progress. Many branches already host girls’ career or math and science events. And our roundtable discussions and other educational equity work with key community, business, education, and media players have built a strong reputation for identifying a problem and convening the right people to solve it.

We turn to our coalition partners and to girls to help plan and execute the summits and, afterward, make the recommended changes. Detailed guidelines for hosting your Sister-to-Sister Summit follow on this webpage.

Some people may ask, “Why is AAUW still focusing on girls?”

Ask a girl.

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Why a Summit?

In focusing attention on the evaded curriculum through Sister-to-Sister Summits, AAUW comes one step closer to achieving our goal of educational equity. Just look at what you can do.

Give girls a chance to be heard.
AAUW’s 1991 Shortchanging Girls, Shortchanging America shows that in adolescence, girls often experience a dramatic drop in self-esteem and lose the vibrant, strong voices they once had. Each teen girl views her life from a unique perspective that, if shared, can spark a rich and productive dialogue. Girls’ discovery of their shared experiences can affirm their views and spur them to action, sister to sister.

Give girls an opportunity to talk about their fears and frustrations, their dreams and ideas. What challenges do they face? What steps can they take to solve problems? What support do they need? Listen to their voices, then watch their self-esteem rise and, with it, their involvement and participation.

Change a girl’s life.
With their concerns identified, girls will articulate the messages they want to convey, services they need, and changes they want to make. We will then help the girls transform their thoughts into a platform for action. The platform for action on paper becomes an agenda for change in our schools and communities. Let the girls know how AAUW, our coalition partners, and other adults will facilitate follow-up. By collaborating with such organizations as the Girl Scouts, Girls Incorporated, and the YWCA, AAUW can help organize sustained responses to girls’ needs.

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Planning a Summit

Work in coalitions
Just as AAUW served as convener for educational equity roundtables after the release of Shortchanging Girls, Shortchanging America, AAUW is convening the girls summits, bringing together concerned people who are in the position to make changes. Together, we are learning what girls need to achieve and grow.

But despite our leadership, most AAUW members aren’t experts in evaded curriculum issues. Armed with Hostile Hallways, AAUW's survey on sexual harassment in school, we have a solid grounding in sexual harassment issues. But our research hasn’t explored in depth the other topics girls may raise at the summits—topics like violence, substance abuse, early sexual activity, and body image.

You’ll want to ask trained professionals, such as school nurses, guidance counselors, child welfare advocates, and youth organization employees, to get involved. Coalition partners, especially those with expertise in adolescent issues, will be essential for follow up. Collaborate with nearby branches and interbranch councils, or hold a regional or state summit. And work with individuals and groups such as these:

• Girl Scouts, Girls Incorporated, the YWCA, and Planned Parenthood
  
• Teachers unions and parent-teacher groups
  
• Child psychologists, professors, principals, school counselors, and teachers
  
• Social service agencies, such as child welfare agencies, human rights or human services commissions, rape crisis centers, and juvenile justice agencies
  
• College women’s centers and women’s organizations, women’s studies departments, sororities, and colleges for teacher education
  
• Civil rights organizations, such as MANA: A Latina Organization, the Japanese American Citizens League, the NAACP, NOW, the National Women’s Political Caucus, and the League of United Latin American Citizens

When approaching potential coalition partners, make sure they understand that follow up is just as important as the summit itself. The summit will provide a forum to hear girls’ voices about issues adversely affecting their lives and learning, but we can’t ask the question without making a commitment to find the answer. Coalition members should take action to address those issues.

In a coalition effort, authority, accountability, and rewards are shared. And the rewards, you’ll find, are well worth the effort.

The planning team
The planning team should be fairly small to ensure that decisions can be made and tasks accomplished quickly. The team should reflect the background of your target audience in terms of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and ability. Decisions should be made by the team whenever possible, but appoint a convener with the authority to make decisions when necessary.

A committee of four to seven adults is best. Include a representative from each co-sponsoring organization.

Invite about five to 10 girls to join your planning team, too. Growin g Smart: What’s Working for Girls in School, published by the Educational Foundation in 1995, documents that girls thrive when they are given the opportunity to participate, are respected as central players, and are empowered to realize their dreams. Involving girls as equal partners in your planning will provide them with a unique experience while ensuring the summit addresses their needs.

Recruit girls through your coalition partners, schools, social service agencies, or the juvenile justice system.

Areas of responsibility
Key areas of responsibility should be divided among team members to share the work and promote a sense of involvement and a stake in the success of the overall effort. Subcommittees can address these areas:

• Program: Plan plenary sessions and workshops. Recruit, provide guidelines for, and train workshop facilitators.
• Logistics: Arrange location, meals, transportation, registration, and topics.
• Publications: Design and produce the promotional brochure/registration form and a printed program.
• Outreach: Garner support among girls, parents, and schools and process registration forms.
• Visibility: Coordinate media outreach.
• Fundraising: Solicit funding and in-kind contributions.

Meetings
At each committee and subcommittee meeting, take minutes. Explain that the official minutes will deal with policies, not personal testimonies. Note the names of those present and critical decisions made. After the meeting, distribute the minutes to all team members in a timely fashion, allowing time for corrections to the minutes at the next meeting.

Establish a regular meeting schedule and location that is accessible to all participants.

Treat the girls as equal participants. Consider rotating the role of meeting chair among both adults and girls. You might also assign one team member to act as an ally to girls on the team, making sure they are heard.

Program
No two summits will be exactly alike, but all summits should be built around teenage girls, ages 12 to 16, talking about the evaded curriculum. The girls will identify the final discussion topics in advance through the application process.

The day can include plenary sessions and smaller “chat rooms.” Schedule at least one pre-summit meeting to run through the day’s plan.

Opening plenary session
Set the stage at the opening session. Be sure at least one girl from the planning committee has a role in the introductory remarks. You might also invite an official from the host institution to welcome participants.

Explain the purpose, goals, and flow of the summit. Let the girls know this is their day to talk openly. As one participant said at a girls’ meeting in Washington, D.C., “If it sounds like adults preaching to girls about sex [for instance], they wouldn’t come. If it were girls talking to girls, they would.”

The key to enabling girls to discuss sensitive issues lies in establishing ground rules for interaction. Work with the girls to establish parameters such as respecting each others’ differences and experiences and keeping the discussions confidential.

Summarize the responses to the six questions on the registration form. Doing so will demonstrate right away that planners are paying attention to the girls’ words. Highlight any similarities among the girls’ responses. Telling the participants, for instance, “Many of you said you are disturbed by violence,” will help individual girls feel that they are not alone. Also note how differences of opinion and diverse experiences enhance discussions. Ask each girl to say her name and hometown, or combine this with a fun ice-breaker. Although this process takes time, it sets the tone by having girls connect with one another.

You might invite a local improvisational troupe or peer counselor group to perform. Provide them with a copy of the chapter entitled, “The Evaded Curriculum” from The AAUW Report: How Schools Shortchange Girls to help convey the purpose of the summit. Tell them in advance the girls’ choice of discussion topics.

Chat rooms and facilitators
Each small-group session should include no more than 10 girls plus two facilitators, one girl and one woman. An optional third volunteer, a girl or woman, might serve as recorder. Each chat room should address one of three priority topics that girls identified on their registration forms. Summits may have more than one chat room devoted to a single topic, if attendance warrants.

Hold a training session to prepare facilitators to deal with sensitive issues and steer participants toward concrete action strategies. Ask a qualified planning team member, a school district employee, or someone from the child welfare agency to run the training.

The adult facilitators will need experience working with girls, training as a facilitator, and knowledge of the specific chat room topic. You will also want women who can foster an open environment for the girls.

Facilitators should be only as involved as needed to keep the conversation moving and on track and to encourage all girls to participate. To spur conversation, work with youth groups to frame questions.

Chat room session I
Begin the session by having each participant introduce herself again, giving her name, hometown, and one interesting fact about herself. Then begin the discussion. Record all comments on newsprint. After about 20 minutes, the facilitators should comment on any themes or subtopics that have emerged. For the next 15 minutes, discuss actions that girls and adults could take to address the identified problems, prompting the conversation with, “Is this just the way it is or can something be done about it?” Record all action ideas.

For the last 15 to 20 minutes, discuss outcomes. Identify the main messages that participants would like to convey to other girls and to adults in the schools and the community about this topic. Explain that together, the group can get your messages out.

Chat room messages to other girls
Messages to other girls might be, “You don’t have to have sex until you’re ready” or “Drugs may seem to provide short-term solutions, but we have to live in these bodies forever.” Try to have the girls agree on one or two key messages. Record each on a separate sheet of newsprint.

Chat room messages to adults
Messages to adults might be, “Teachers need to stop sexual harassment taking place in the hallways and classrooms” or “‘Just say no’ doesn’t work if no one takes specific steps to stop the sale of drugs on school grounds.” Again, try to have the girls agree on one or two key messages to adults, and record each on a separate sheet of newsprint.

Chat room actions
As your final step, have the girls prioritize one to three actions they would like to take to address the topic. Actions can range from personal and small (“write in a journal every day” or “when your friends condone violence, tell them you don’t agree”) to public and large (“hold a follow-up summit for girls and boys” or “prepare a paper for the school district to consider”).

After the session (probably during lunch), have the facilitators rewrite the top one to three priority messages for girls and for adults and the corresponding actions for each topic on clean newsprint, eliminating any duplication among groups working on the same topic. This newsprint is now ready for chat room session II.

Lunch
The noon hour can be unstructured, giving girls an opportunity to interact, or you might include a program. Consider these ideas:

• Ask girls to write in journals about the morning session.
• Invite a prominent woman to talk about the benefits of sisterhood in her personal and professional life. Then have girls write or talk about what “sister-to-sister” means to them.

Chat room session II
This session generally replicates the first chat room session, but each girl goes to a different room to discuss a different topic.

Take about 10 minutes at the end of the hour to build consensus across chat room sessions I and II on the same topic. Do this by having the facilitators show session I’s messages and actions and help the group consolidate the two sessions’ work, eliminating any overlap and recording all the messages and actions on fresh newsprint.

Finally, ask each girl to put a check on the newsprint next to the message and action she thinks should be the top priority.

Immediately after the session, have the facilitators rewrite the top priority messages and actions on clean newsprint. This newsprint is now ready for chat room session III.

Activity
After chat room session II, a planned activity will provide the girls with an opportunity to move around and interact with each other more casually. Use one of the following suggestions or devise one of your own:

• If your summit is at a college or university, have a school official lead a campus tour.
• Invite an instructor to teach self defense. This session can boost girls’ self-confidence and provide training that girls might otherwise not receive.
• Hold a conflict resolution workshop. You’ll teach a valuable skill for leadership development, peer relationships, and personal growth.
• Conduct an artistic activity, which can help girls express themselves in a medium other than words while providing good visuals for the media.

Chat room session III
The last chat room should be a repeat of the second session. Each girls attends a chat room on a topic she hasn’t discussed in sessions I and II. Have girls consolidate the work of sessions II and III and vote on their top priority of those messages and actions. The facilitators should again rewrite the top priority messages and actions on clean newsprint.

The closing plenary
With all the girls back together, your last session should bring closure to the day while building anticipation and excitement about next steps. Affirm the messages that came out of the chat rooms and design a course for action. All volunteers and perhaps parents, too, should attend this event, to build support for the girls’ action plans.

Affirming the platform for action (25 minutes)
Begin by displaying the final newsprint for each topic and reading the consensus messages and actions. There should be no more than two to three messages each for girls and for adults, and three to five actions for each topic. Combine the topics to create your summit’s platform for action.

Since this platform for action will be shared widely, be sure it accurately reflects the day’s work. Solicit comments. Ask girls if anything critical is missing. Once any corrections or additions are made, the girls ratify the document.

One way to do this is to ask the girls who believe the platform for action represents the opinions of the summit to raise their hands. Next, ask those who do not feel it represents the work of the group to raise their hands. Congratulate any girl who is brave enough to object, noting that disagreement is natural in a large group. As long as a clear majority of girls support the platform, consider it ratified.
Next, ask the adults in the room to stand and pledge their support in carrying out the platform by raising their hands. Suggest the girls look around and notice all the adults who want to support them.

Steps toward implementation (25 minutes)
Have girls congregate around the newsprint with the topic they wish to work on. With a facilitator, have the groups begin to outline a concrete plan of action. Brainstorm first steps to take and have girls sign up for each. If a girl is not interested in participating, she may simply be kept informed through periodic mailings or e-mails.

Report to the assembly (10 minutes)
Have each group briefly report its plan of action. Ask several adults to outline the specific steps they will take to support the girls. Promise to mail the final platform for action to all participants, the schools, and the media. Ask girls to complete and return the evaluation form. Congratulate and thank all involved.

Logistics

Location
Choose a location with a large room for plenary sessions and a number of smaller rooms for the chat sessions. Assign specific rooms to each of your three topics.

Colleges and universities make ideal summit settings and are often interested in supporting an event to benefit the community. Furthermore, college students are usually close in age to the girls and can make wonderful mentors — and potential student affiliates.

The St. Lawrence County (NY) Branch, working with the campus chapter of Society for Women Engineers and the Girl Scouts, held an overnight girls’ conference in the Clarkson University field house, complete with free reign of the basketball and volleyball courts and swimming pool! Girls loved sleeping in sleeping bags in one big room. (If you do an overnight, allow lots of free time for talking and washing up, but be sure to ask an adequate number of adults to sleep on the premises and set rules about lights out and safety.)

Colleges and universities are most likely to donate space during the summer or during a spring or fall break, but call early. If the college is an AAUW college/university partner, contact the C/U campus representative (contact the AAUW Helpline at helpline@aauw.org or 800/326-AAUW) to get an insider’s perspective on a possible collaboration.

Other possible locations for your summit include a community center, YWCA, or Girl Scout camp. Arrange with the host institution for adequate flip charts (not blackboards), tables for registration and display materials, microphones for the plenaries, trash cans, parking availability, and signage. Inspect the rooms well in advance and again a few hours before the summit.

Meals
Be sure to ask girls to note any dietary restrictions on the registration form. Ask a local business or the college catering service to donate lunch. If the meals cannot be donated, consider having coalition members make lunches a day ahead or ordering pizza. Alternatively, ask participants to bring a bag lunch.

Transportation
Arrange transportation for those girls whose parents cannot drive. Volunteers may be willing to shuttle girls to and from the summit. Ask girls to note any mobility limitations on the registration form.

If your summit draws girls from around the state, you might want to work with a travel agent to arrange schedules so the girls arrive around the same time. Be sure to meet participants’ planes, buses, and trains.

Make sure that travel costs are not an obstacle to girls’ attendance by raising money to cover travel. (See the section on fundraising, below.) The Southern Marin County (CA) Branch got a grant from a local technology company to rent buses for their “Can Do Day.”

Registration
Girls register by completing and returning the registration form. To get the brochure/registration form, e-mail program@aauw.org.

The number of attendees will be limited by your budget and available space, but also select a number that allows each girl to be fully involved. Somewhere between 50 to 100 girls works best. Choose girls who reflect the diversity in your community. Once you have reviewed the registration forms, confirm the girls’ attendance by mail, including a parental permission slip.

The answers to questions 1 through 6 on the registration forms will provide the major topics for the summit, so share those with the program planning committee immediately.

Topics
Questions 1 to 6 on the registration form are carefully worded to elicit the evaded curriculum issues girls want to discuss. Each summit will address a different set of topics to meet the needs of the specific girls involved. Limit your summit to three topics.

Your review team should include girls and professionals who work with youth and can cull girls’ priority issues from their responses to questions 1 to 6.

Registration desk
Staff the registration desk with both girls and adults. Display AAUW membership materials and have a member staff the table to talk about AAUW and recruit new members. Allocate space for coalition partners, too.

Provide each participant with a registration packet that includes a program containing the day’s schedule with room locations; information about co-sponsoring organizations; a map of the site if necessary; a pen; a small gift, such as an AAUW T-shirt, sports bottle, or button; a roster containing all attendees’ names and addresses; a listing of area social service agencies and rape crisis centers; and an evaluation form.

Have girls from the planning committee greet participants as they complete registration and guide them to coat closets, rest rooms, and the opening session.

Outreach
“You’re not going to get a balance [of ideas] unless there is a balance of people there,” said one girl at a girls’ meeting in Washington, D.C. It is essential to get attendees who represent the diversity in your community or state. Include girls who represent a wide range of cultures and races as well as different physical abilities, sexual orientations, and socioeconomic levels. Consider working with neighboring branches in more diverse communities.

Focus your outreach on underrepresented girls to achieve this balance and to make sure no girl feels isolated at the conference. Nothing stifles honest discussion like feeling different and alone.

Disseminate the brochure
Post brochures/registration forms in libraries and recreational centers. Pass them to co-sponsoring organizations, schools, local newspapers, parent-teacher groups, houses of worship, radio stations, social service agencies, and youth-serving organizations. To get the brochure/registration form, e-mail program@aauw.org.

Meet with parent groups, schools, and community groups
Reaching out to the community will be a critical part of your summit. Winning support up front — especially from parents, educators, and local groups — will help you attract participants and garner support for girls’ action plans.

Meet with school administrators, teachers, and counselors and the local parent-teacher organizations to let them know your plans. Also ask them to recommend girls for the planning committee and to publicize the summit. After the event, meet again with the girls to present the results and gain support for follow-up.

Visibility
Attract media attention to publicize your summit, educate the public about evaded curriculum topics, and make sure girls’ voices are heard.

While media presence may feed girls’ excitement about the event and reassure them that they will be heard, reporters and cameras might also inhibit girls from speaking out openly. Consider inviting the media only to plenary sessions and holding a separate news conference before or after the summit. While gaining visibility is critical to your success, you do not want to sacrifice girls’ honesty.

Fundraising
To attract a wide range of girls, try to avoid charging registration fees and try to cover girls’ transportation costs. Start by constructing a comprehensive budget, then brainstorm with your branch and coalition to identify potential sources of funding and in-kind donations.

Your budget will probably include these expenses:

• meeting space
• custodial services for space
• long-distance phone calls
• speaker fees
• lunch and perhaps a snack for participants and volunteers
• coffee for parents and volunteers
• transportation for girls
• printing/copying brochure and registration forms, program, handouts, media kits, correspondence, and minutes of meetings
• postage for brochure, news releases, correspondence, and post-summit mailings
• registration materials, including any folders, evaluation forms, resource lists, and trinkets such as AAUW T-shirts or sports bottles
• banner
• supplies, such as newsprint, markers, name tags, and materials for a creative activity

When soliciting support, keep in mind these fundraising principles:

1. People give to people. Personal contacts are crucial; nothing is as effective as a personal appeal.
2. People don’t give if they are not asked. You have to be willing to make the first move.

If you solicit donors by mail, you can use the sample letter in the Sister-to-Sister packet as a model. To get the packet, e-mail program@aauw.org. Within a week of sending the letter, follow up with a phone call or personal visit.

Here are a few more fundraising tips. For more, see Section 7 of the Girls Can! Community Coalitions Resource Manual.

• When soliciting contributions, request a specific amount to cover one element of your summit. Depending on the potential donor, you could ask for large amounts, such as printing costs or lunch for 125 people, or small amounts, such as the cost of sponsoring one girl to attend.
  
• Be prepared to demonstrate why the summit is necessary. Cite statistics about evaded curriculum issues from the fact sheets and information specific to your area.
  
• Assure potential donors that their contributions will be acknowledged. Remember to thank donors often, verbally and in print.
  
• Advise supporters of your tax status under the Internal Revenue Service so they know whether their gifts are tax deductible. Most branches are 501(c)(4) organizations, and gifts are not tax deductible.

Consider these sources for funding and in-kind contributions:

• Coalition partners
• Schools or universities (especially for space and refreshments)
• Local businesses, especially woman-owned businesses
• State or local governments
• Community Action Grants from the AAUW Educational Foundation
• Large corporations, particularly those headquartered in town and concerned about the community
• Local foundations

Before soliciting a national corporation or foundation, please contact development@aauw.org to coordinate your efforts.

Follow up
After the summit, you will have these important tasks:

• Send a recap of the summit outcomes and a list of all participants to each girl.
• Send thank-you letters to all volunteers and contributors.
• Call or send a note to volunteers and parents, inviting them to attend an AAUW event or get involved in other AAUW activities. Ask them to join your branch.
• Hold a post-summit meeting with coalition partners to evaluate the event and discuss each partners’ role in follow-up.
• Complete and return the summit data collection form to AAUW Program Department, American Association of University Women, 1111 Sixteenth St. N.W., Washington, DC 20036.