[Archived] Alexandria Court Service Unit and Art League Inc. Implement 2005 Space of Her Own Program to Serve At-Risk Teenage Girls

City Press Release


	City of Alexandria, Virginia Office of the City Manager Alexandria City Hall 301 King Street, Suite 3500 Alexandria, Virginia 22314-3211 www.alexandriava.gov Telephone: 703.838.4300 Fax : 703.838.6343

For Immediate Release
February 28, 2005
PIO 057-05/rdo

Alexandria Court Service Unit and Art League Inc. Implement
2005 Space of Her Own Program to Serve At-Risk Teenage Girls

The Alexandria Court Service Unit and the Art League Inc. are implementing the 2005 Space of Her Own (SOHO) program to serve at-risk, low-income teenage girls between the ages of 12 and 14. SOHO is an arts-based mentoring program that allows local youth to attend workshops in art and design with their mentors and work with them to remodel their bedrooms. The program seeks to facilitate an appreciation for the arts while it develops positive, long-term relationships between girls and mentors, reduces crime, and promotes the overall success of the program’s participants in school, home, and community life.

Participants and their mentors meet twice a week after school to attend sessions in team building, life skills, art, and space planning, and on weekends for painting and remodeling work. Mentors volunteer at least 200 hours of service during the project and commit to a yearlong mentorship with a teenager.

The program borrowed its bedroom remodeling concept from the television show “Trading Spaces.” The City of Alexandria’s Youth Fund supports the program.

Since its inception in 2003, SOHO has assisted over 27 teenage girls. This year’s program runs from February through May.

For more information, call Linda Odell of the Alexandria Court Service Unit at 703.838.4144, extension 251.

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