• True Colors
• Missing Masks
• Harness Your Inner Strength
• The Diamond Within.

1:50pm Four Concurrent Creative Workshops cont'd.

3:45pm Mirror of the Heart: Inner Reflections.

4:15pm Closing Plenary Session

• Dialogue with Resource Women and Young Women.
• Evaluation/Follow Up Commitments.

Guidelines For Running Creative Workshops: All four workshops are conducted concurrently, that is simultaneously, either using pre-selection or self-selection techniques. Each workshop lasts for no more than 45 minutes and has a maximum of 20 individuals to enable active participation while maintaining an intimate atmosphere. Four older women, as resource experts, are silent observers of the concurrent creative workshops. Through a rotation process, each group experiences all four workshops, but the resource women remain in their specified workshop so as to experience the variety of perspectives held by all the young women which is then the stimulus for the interactive discussion at the closing plenary session.

• TRUE COLORS:
  Self-Awareness -- the `knowing' -- an artistic and creative method for undersanding self-awareness
• MISSING MASKS:
  Self-Respect --`the believing' -- a workshop using masks to express stories about the self and the faces we hide behind.
• HARNESS YOUR INNER STRENGTH:
  Empowerment -- the `doing' -- tape recordings of life experiences about assumptions made about others: identifying the missing values in these life experiences.
• THE DIAMOND WITHIN:
  Dignity -- `the becoming' -- a process of vision to touch the powers of love and truth to begin to value the self as a diamond.

Follow-up: "Young Women of Wisdom" circles: to establish ongoing dialogues on the themes of dignity, self-esteem and self-respect; to create a web page on the Internet; to establish a network which acts as a support group for other young women in the community.

Evaluation: In evaluating the day's program, the following questions could be used:

1. How do you feel about your experience during the day?
2. Have the day's activities changed your perspective? If so, How?
3. Please provide overall comments or suggestions about the day.
4. Are you interested in being part of the Young Women of Wisdom Initiative? Yes or No?
5. Regarding the Young Women of Wisdom Initiative in general, what are your ideas for future programs that reach out to other young women?
6. Do you want to crate a Young Women of Wisdom Circle in your community? Yes or No?
7. Are you interested in contributing to the Young Women of Wisdom Web Page?
8. Additional Comments.

Harmony House, New York,
Saturday, December 7, 1996

Attendance:
43 individuals registered and about 30 attended. It was pouring with rain and there had been a large snow fall north of New York so it was a pretty good turn out, considering the weather conditions.

The girls quickly became comfortable with their surroundings and made friends easily. Some knew each other (from the same school or community, but the majority were meeting for the first time.) We had participants form Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, Long Island in New York and also from neighboring states of New Jersey, Connecticut, Massetuesettes and Washington.

Morning Plenary:
included a Video of UNICEF's 50th Anniversary, a welcome and brief introduction to the topic of self-respect by Dr. Kala Iyengar, a pediatrician and coordinator of activities at Harmony House.

Workshops:
All the workshops were very successful and gave the young women an opportunity to express different parts of themselves. The most popular seemed to be the Missing Masks. The young women were asked to write a story in the first person but as if spoken by another character, expressing what they had at one point wanted to express but couldn’t. Then they were asked to pick out one of the masks that were displayed in the room that would fit their created character. They then came one by one in front of the group and told their story from behind the mask. Following are some of their realizations:

"Its kind of safe, no one can see you. I think now that I’ve expressed my feelings from behind a mask, instead of hiding them, next time I would have more courage to do it without a mask."

"You can take time to find out how you would like to shape what you want to express."

" I always thought others where blocking me. They wouldn’t accept my feelings or my ideas and therefore I felt angry. I realize the anger I had was actually because I did not have the courage to express my own feeling. So, I kind of was angry with myself and no one else."

Inner Reflections:
As the young women had been interacting and talking most of the day this was an opportunity to become reflective and capture their personal experience in the form of a poem, drawing, song, letter or other creative expressions. During this period an atmosphere of silence was set with the soothing sounds of live flute music.

Afternoon plenary:
Sharing from the four resource women, who had been silent observers throughout the whole day, each having been assigned to one workshop. The "older women of wisdom", spoke for about 5-10 minutes each. From their hearts they congratulated the young women for their courage, insight and fortune of being part of such a unique day. They said they, themselves felt very honored to be part of the young women’s day and remarked on how clear the young women articulated their concerns. It gave them hope that the future of the world was in good hands. They reflected back to the young women some of the questions they had heard them ask and shared some insights from the wealth of their own experiences. The young women were respectful to this feedback and they were light and relaxed as the awareness of their own worth began to be felt by all present in the room.

There was time allowed for a dialogue between the older and younger women of wisdom, but what actually happened was that the young women wanted to share their experiences of the day. Because of the very caring and comforting environment, the young women spoke of how much they had learnt about themselves. For some it was the first time that they felt they could express themselves freely in a safe, non-judgmental and non-threatening environment. They realized that even though they sometimes felt misunderstood and found it difficult to express themselves, they felt it was important to maintain the courage to express themselves with honesty.

Closing:

Meditation:
Created from the words and phrases that the young women shared as part of their experiences of the day:

The journey inside can at first reveal challenges and insecurities,
It is indeed challenging but important,
For as I delve further into my personality I discover positive qualities.
It is like a second chance,
Allowing myself the freedom to create my own impressions of myself, my true self,
Instead of depending on others for support I find strength in myself,
I see what I’d like to be, I can do all things, I have my own qualities;
I am sweet, peaceful, strong, flexible, creative, light and satisfied with what I see.
This allows me to be more comfortable with myself and others.
I maintain my true self respect.
Happy ever after, my words and actions have value.
It is a good experience to look inside and see what’s on my mind.
By seeing myself as happy, I am a true diamond, no rough edges, it feels like me.

Closing Remarks
by BK Mohini, Director of the Brahma Kumaris, USA.

Sister Mohini spoke about filling their basket of life. Imagine going into an old fashioned type market. There are many things on sale. You have a list, but can also see many things which are not on your list which look good. You are with a friend who suggests many other items. How would you choose what to put in your basket? Learning to listen to the inner voice would help to decide what is needed, and what is to be left. Learning was very important, it brings self-confidence, self-fulfillment and empowerment. Learning does not necessarily mean being clever but being able to deal with life. How to avoid problems, and have a happy life for ourselves was equally important.

She went on to tell a story of a boatman who had 3 passengers : one asked him if he knew about science, the boatman answered "no". The passenger replied. "Then a ¼ of your life is gone". The second passenger asked if he knew about mathematics, again the boatman replied "no". "Then ½ your life is gone". The third passenger asked him if he knew about astrology and he replied "Very little". "Then ¾ of your life has gone and you only have a ¼ left." Then a big storm came and the boatman asked his passengers if they could swim and they all replied "no", he then resonded….. "Then the whole of your life is gone!"

Sister Mohini then shared with them the importance of blessings. By bringing happiness to themselves and others they would receive blessings which were an extra gift in life. One cannot ask for blessings, they can only be given freely and with love.

Blessings on the power of self-respect written on dimond-shaped cards were shared as a parting gift.

SUMMARY
It was a very successful day. The young women were very cooperative and ready to get the most out of it. Because the majority of them were 16-18, the day leaned toward their level of understanding and experiences. The older ones listened and participated as well, although at times, they would have liked to go into things a little deeper: e.g., how to put these new found qualities and values into practice. However, it was felt that very good seeds were planted; the opportunity of a different way of looking at things; and the awareness that there were more paths and wider horizons that could be taken made the day very worthwhile.

EXPERIENCES
Some excerpts taken from evaluation forms:

"This is a very good program which should be spread throughout the world via schools and other programs like this. Women, no matter what age or from what background, need such programs to help them see and build self-respect, self-confidence and an overall better self image." (Shefali, age 17)

"Start young women programs in schools. It could even be on TV! I hope I am invited to more of these women’s groups in the near future. In my community most women aren’t independent, but I think if we get a program like this in my community it will be good for them…..I liked the missing masks workshop the best. It was the one that really gave you suggestions on how to deal in the real world." (Rochelle, age 16)

"I’ve learned to look at things in perspective. Today gave me time to think about things that I wouldn’t ordinarily." (Sheela, age 17)

"A real Spiritual, calm day" (Gladys, age 16)

"It was cool. It was a soothing experience, but it did not completely fulfill my soul’s wishes" (Cristina)

"I feel very excited, fascinated and happy". (Johanna)

"The day has been very insightful. It forced me to look within, for all the qualities I thought I lacked Everyone here has shown me the support that I need in my search for strength, respect… If we can really carry this outside and touch others with similar positive thoughts we’ve gained today." (Lisana, age 22)

"Today was a beautiful day full of knowledge, listening, watching, breathing and participating in the group seminars led to an eventful and unforgettable experience." (Deborah, age 23)

"The workshops were very well run, and the activities that we did made us search for the values that we had within ourselves and they helped us to locate those values. (Amee, age 17)

FUTURE PLANS:
Other Launches of YWOW in the pipe-line:

• London – UK Coordinator – Nicola Maude
• Washington DC – USA Coordinator – Jenna Maraj
• Quebec – Canada Coordinator – BK.Vheena
• Quatre-Bornes – Mauritius Coordinator – BK. Dipti
• Valencia – Spanish Coordinator – Marta Martarin

The coordinators of New York, are planning a follow-up meeting to include the following suggestions:

• Start circles in the different areas. We specifically invited young women form different areas so that they, having been part of the experience, could take it into their communities. From their evaluation forms it was seen that many would like to start circles. The feeling is that there needs to be some sort of training for the facilitators of these circles.
• YWOW on the Web. News of what is happening in other countries.
• A follow-up event, going a little deeper into some of the values and inner resources that the young women touched upon.