March 2010

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am one of the coordinators of the Association of Women's Action, Research and Empowerment (AWARE) Canada which is a peer-driven organization dedicated to providing young women with support and leadership opportunities within their communities. We are currently organizing a girl’s sleepover event to take place Saturday May 15th to Sunday May 16th entitled “Empowering our Dreams” at Strathcona Community Centre in Vancouver. The goal of this weekend event is create an informal, safe environment in which young women, specifically those from marginalized and minority backgrounds can explore and discuss issues that are of concern and importance to them through fun, interactive activities.

To ensure that we participants feel comfortable and well supported, we are limiting the number girls to fifteen ensuring a high ratio between participants and resource leaders/organizers/volunteers. In order that we do reach our target group – girls with limited access to relevant, affordable programming – we are asking schools and community organizations to recommend one or two participants whom they feel would most benefit from our event. We are currently approaching Vancouver Technical and Britannia Secondary School, Strathcona Community Centre, the North Shore and Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood Houses and Urban Youth Association with participation requests.

The ideal participant would be a girl, between the ages of13 and 16 years old, who has expressed an interest in social justice or would benefit from the example of strong female role models and one-on-one support from her peers and resource leaders. Our resource leaders are current or graduate university students, from diverse backgrounds and strong experience in youth and educational programming.

Please note that this event is free for participants, healthy meals will be provided and transport will be offered to girls in the immediate area to Strathcona, otherwise a volunteer will accompany girls taking public transit, whose costs will also be covered by the event.

We hope that through the connections they make and the discussions they will have, participants will leave with a stronger, empowered sense of self and the desire to remain engaged in leadership and community activities. For further information about our event, please refer to my letter written below for the envisioned event.

If you would like to further discuss the possibility of recommending a girl you know, please contact me, Melody Tabatabaian, at 604 505 6158 or at [email protected], otherwise I will be in touch shortly to follow up.

Thank you kindly.

Warmest regards,

Melody Tabatabaian

Association of Women’s Action Research and Empowerment www.awarecanada.com [email protected] Further Description of Event:

My name is Melody Tabatabaian and I am a 20-year-old young woman living in Vancouver. Currently, myself and a group of five empowered female resource leaders from AWARE Canada have come together to plan an event for other young woman in our community. We are looking for a safe, secure, and central venue for an event we hope to offer young woman from our community over the weekend of May 15-16 2010 . Recently, I was fortunate to receive a grant from the Millennium Grant Program valued at $2500 in order to initiate this event. With an endorsement from Girls Action Foundation and the strong team of resource leaders at AWARE Canada we are now looking for a safe, secure, and central venue to hold ‘The Girls Sleepover Night.’

This will be a two-day event that will serve as a safe space for young girls in the Vancouver area ages 13-16, from marginalised groups with an informal space to connect so that they can explore their various passions through creative activity and interactive discussion to connect, learn about gender issues, and build community through creative and artistic pursuits such as art, drama, and dance. We will have up to 7 volunteers and 15 participants throughout the duration of the event and we will require a space that is capable of safely and comfortably accommodating 20-23 individuals. The concept of the ‘sleepover’ is crucial in providing a safe informal space of expression for young girls who are in an extremely impressionable stage of life where they may feel more comfortable exposing curiosities, fears, and self-esteem issues. The ‘Girls Sleepover Night’ thus aims to provide young girls with skills to be self-confident and also to deconstruct the messages of the mainstream media.

Through the ‘Girls Sleepover Night’ the resource leaders and myself would like to facilitate this process of growth by showing examples of positive role models, and to let these young girls know that they too can be leaders. Programming such as this is crucial to the healthy development of our communities. We have allotted $700-$900 dollars of the Millennium Grant for our venue; however, donations of space or of any kind are greatly appreciate, thus allowing us to direct funds into future programming for young women. Thank you for your time and any information you can provide us on your venue space or alternatives within the community would be greatly appreciated.