JEWELS expands its program (cont'd)

After three successful years in two Philadelphia sites, the JEWELS program has expanded this year to five sites across the metro area. Beginning this fall, the JEWEL program, which serves young women of color between 12 and 18, will expand to four new locations. The first is in the original home of the program, Mastery Charter School - Lenfest campus. The program first started at Mastery Charter Middle school in 2011 with a small group of 7th and 8th graders. After two years at that site, administrators and students requested that the program be expanded to the high school. "We are very excited to expand to the high school at Mastery," says Tarana Burke, founder of Just Be Inc. and the JEWELS program. "The girls that started with us in the 7th grade are now in high school and they wanted to continue participating" says Burke. The high school program at Mastery is called PEARLS and expands on the curriculum of the middle school. In addition to Mastery, the JEWEL program will be at Kensington CAPA H.S. located in North Philadelphia. Principal Debora Carrera is very excited about this exciting opportunity for her girls. "We need a program just like this here. I'm happy to have them join us," says Carrera. The program at Kensington CAPA will be split into two as well with seperate meetings for freshman and sophomores and upperclassman. Finally, Just BE Inc. will be partnering with the Philadelphia Freedom Schools program to bring JEWELS to a group of their high school aged participants. Unfortunately, Just Be will not be working with     the students at ARISE academy this year, but they are hopeful about renewing that relationship in the future.  "It's an exciting time for us we've more than doubled in size since last year. We were sad to lose ARISE as a site, but we're thrilled to be able to work with such a wide range of young women" says Burke.