Happy National Girls and
Women in Sports Day!
In honor of this, we want to recognize our FearlesslyGiRL program. FearlesslyGiRL was founded to address bullying and create space to connect, empower young women, and ultimately engender a kinder world. Madison Keys joined the FearlesslyGiRL initiative as an ambassador, which has helped to spread the message through the tennis community. The Fred Wells Tennis and Education Center started our Fearlessly GiRL program in 2019, and it has taken off since then providing a safe space for Middle School and High School girl/non-binary tennis players to show up as themselves, learn about themselves and others, explore, have fun and discuss dense topics.
A typical FearlesslyGiRL session includes an hour of tennis followed by an hour of time in the classroom. The off-court time is where we get to know each other and discuss topics of mental health, body image, identity, and self-awareness. Our last session focused on body image and what the word meant to us. We did an activity where we looked at favorite qualities about ourselves and fears or insecurities we noticed. After the activity, we all debriefed to discuss how it made us feel, qualities we wrote down, and ways we can cope and accept all of ourselves. To wrap up, we shared one thing we were grateful for and one thing we were looking forward to in the near future.
FearlesslyGiRL programming has been able to prosper thanks to our dedicated volunteers, LT and Rasheeda. In addition to our volunteers, this program would not be possible without funding, support from our Fort Team, and our vulnerable and courageous students that show up with an open mindset.
Personally, this program has allowed me to give back the wisdom and love I have received from so many strong women mentors in my life as well as learn and accommodate to the needs of our youth. It has been a learning experience and an honor to create space for our FearlesslyGiRL tennis players to grow into themselves mentally, physically, and emotionally. - Coco Bernard