Youth Empowerment: The Significance of the Girls Empowerment Retreat

Author: Kaitlyn Savage

New Directions Center has a 30-year history of providing free, confidential, trauma-informed services to survivors of domestic and sexual violence. As the organization has grown, it has also recognized the impact this violence has on adolescents in our community.

Through its Youth Program, New Directions Center provides counseling services for children ages 5 and up to help them navigate the effects of domestic and sexual violence. Whether a child has been directly or indirectly affected, New Directions creates a safe space where they can focus on boundaries, personal autonomy, and empowerment.

Within the Youth Program, New Directions hosts an annual Girls Empowerment Retreat. This five-day experience gives girls ages 6 to 13 the opportunity to enter a safe, interactive environment that encourages self-discovery, leadership, relationship-building, and empowerment. Through crafts and activities, panel discussions, and a variety of lessons, each girl is reminded that she is strong, capable, and worthy. She is enough! 

As New Directions approaches its third annual Girls Empowerment Retreat this June, it is important to reflect on the impact this experience has on the young girls in our community.

At a previous retreat, participants were asked to identify red flags, yellow flags, and green flags in relationships. What are signs of an unhealthy relationship? What makes a relationship healthy? 

For red flags, they wrote things like:

• Disrespectful

• Controlling what you do

• Aggressive to people

• Making you do things you don’t want to do

• Cheating

• Manipulative

• Doesn’t stop when you want them to

• “Don’t tell your parents”

For green flags, they wrote:

• Asking how your day has been every day

• Accepting each other

• Loyalty

• Trust

• Respecting each other’s boundaries

• Good communication

• Being nice to their parents

• Always listening

Where yellow flags included things like, “not opening the door for you.”

One of the greatest lessons we can learn from these young girls is that they are always paying attention. They are thoughtful, perceptive, and deeply aware of what is right. 

The more we invite them into spaces where they can create, lead, and inspire, while reminding them of their intelligence and capabilities, the more they will learn to value themselves first.

Our young girls are our future leaders, and the Girls Empowerment Retreat serves as a reminder of that.

As New Directions Center celebrates 30 years of service, the 2026 Girls Empowerment Retreat will honor one empowered woman from each decade throughout history. Through these examples, retreat participants can see themselves reflected in strong women and imagine new possibilities for their own futures. 

They can change the world, and it begins with recognizing the impact they are already making.