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Perrysburg Schools begins new program for female empowerment

A new program at one local school district is teaching a group of girls how to be confident and empowering

PERRYSBURG, Ohio — ROX stands for Ruling Our Experiences; it's a program that's just begun at two Perrysburg Schools. 

The goal is to empower young girls to feel confident with who they are and learn how to navigate through topics that have large impact on girls their age.

There are four teachers in charge of the program; Tiffany Townsend and Allison Latella are in charge of the group at Perrysburg Junior High School (PJHS). Sara Jones and Liza Brown are in charge of the group at Hull Prairie Intermediate School.

"To be able to be the first ones to bring it to Perrysburg and kind-of be the trailblazers, it's really awesome and I feel a great sense of responsibility to make the first one really do well," said ROX co-facilitator, Tiffany Townsend.

The program is designed to span 20-weeks, with one meeting each week. Girls taking part are approached by teachers, or they apply themselves.

"It's been very exciting to kind-of dig in, get our girls and get to know them and  start this process with them," said the other ROX co-facilitator, Allie Latella.

In just three short weeks the program has already taught girls about self defense, being assertive and body image. Other topics that will be covered over the 20-week span include navigating social media and managing stress and peer pressure.

"It's really empowering and I really like it because there's just so many people that I don't really know and we get to all be together and get to know each other and learn about empowering yourself as a girl," said PJHS 8th grader and ROX participant, Cordelia Weber.

Weber said its important to learn these things because she knows a lot of girls that aren't confident in themselves and the program is helping to change that.

"It kind-of shows you what's going on in other people's lives and getting to know people better and becoming friends," said classmate and fellow ROX participant, Shyanne Calkins.

The facilitators said they already have parents requesting them to continue the program for next school year as well. More information on the program can be found here

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