The Brightside: Absolutely Flawless girls mentoring program

SALISBURY, Md. – It’s called Absolutely Flawless. It’s a safe space, a place for these Salisbury Middle sixth graders to break away from their traditional classrooms for just an hour and learn valuable lessons.

“This is a mentoring program that brings positive change into negative situations,” explains Absolutely Flawless CEO Lashelle Dennis.

My’kira Moore, a Salisbury middle schooler says, “We talked about like how we imagine ourselves and our vision for when we get older. We did vision boards and we just talked about how to be ourselves.”

Another Salisbury sixth grader Ja’dai Wright adds, “Your hygiene and your attitude and working together.”

Simple Lessons that Dennis quickly learned were desperately need.

“I saw a lot of young girls that needed just help discovering who they are helping them with their image on the inside.”

A challenge everyone faces at some point in their life, but it’s a hurdle that’s especially common in middle school.

Salisbury Middle School Dean Tikitia Glover says, “Middle school is a different animal for a lot children especially sixth grade which these girls are a part of. It can be very difficult they don’t know where to turn they don’t know who to talk to because they’re having issues.”

That’s why this mentoring program is trying to address just that to give middle school girls a chance to be heard, a group that’s just showing someone cares.

“They’re gaining those communication skills, they’re able to say at this time ‘hey my feelings are hurt, they’re making me angry I need to step away’ or actually we may need a mediation because we need to talk things through.”

It’s a program that is just starting out, but already making a big difference

Wright says, “I used to like be rude and things to my mom but now I’m not.”

“We had a young lady today also say that they were bullying me but because of this I walked away. To hear that just really encouraged me to keep going to keep teaching to keep being that positive example,” explains Dennis.

It’s a program that’s showing everyone just how empowering one hour of one day can be not just for the students but the mentors too.

Dennis says, “They inspire me because they keep fighting, they keep persevering through all of the negativity it’s like I want to succeed.”

“I have actually seen a direct decrease in the behaviors in the students and I directly attribute that to this group and learning how to communicate with each other in the proper way,” adds Glover.

Just by giving these middle schoolers a chance to find their inner sparkle.

Moore exclaims, “She helped me be myself more and love myself.”