Four-week program helps girls build self-esteem

Female empowerment blooms early as part of the four-week Glamour Girls program planned this month at the Centennial Hills Community Center YMCA , 6601 N. Buffalo Drive .

Girls ages 6 through 11 are invited to participate in the self-esteem building club from 5-6 p.m. Fridays this week through April 27 . Activities are to include workshops on self-respect and self-worth and making healthy choices alongside playful events such as manicures and pedicures and homemade care-taking products crafts. The fee is $52 , and the club is open to YMCA members.

The center offered a similar program for a specialty summer camp option last year, and one YMCA branch has it on its birthday party theme roster, Centennial Hills Community Center YMCA senior youth and family director Beth Kolacki said.

"It's not too often you find a program that directly teaches about positive self-esteem, and that's been the appeal for this," she said. "What makes you different is what makes you beautiful. If you like to read or do your hair or play sports. That's the underlying theme we focus on."

The program piggybacks Dove's self-esteem program and its social mission to inspire young women to embrace their traits. The organization has online exercises and resources for educators and parents. The targeted age was deliberate, Kolacki said.

"It's an impactive age group," she said. "They still have that confidence from (ages) 3 through 5, but they're becoming impressionable and trying to figure out how to balance."

Campers and the staff returned positive feedback about Glamour Girls camp sessions, Kolacki said.

"They created a dynamic and became really connected," she said. "We want to instill that small connect."

Kolacki said the center aims to keep class sizes small.

For more information, visit lasvegasymca.org or call 478-9622 .

Contact Centennial and North Las Vegas View reporter Maggie Lillis at mlillis@viewnews.com or 477-3839.