Creating community through women mentoring women. No images? Click here MARCH 2022 ISSUE Dear friends,Big Sister is consistently looking for ways to deepen our support of girls and women—it is how we evolve, create a continuum of mentoring, and build community. One way we’ve done this is through our New Girls Network, which gives young women starting out in their career the chance to learn from more seasoned professionals. Not only is it a mentoring program, but it is also a community-building initiative. We know that when women support girls it helps build their confidence to achieve their goals. The same is true for women supporting women in the workforce. When we build each other up through positive relationships, it creates a ripple effect, so that young women in turn can build up those around them and coming up behind them. That is the power of mentoring. As stated in Big Sister’s mission, we “ignite’ girls’ passion and power to succeed.” Women don’t need unsolicited advice, but we do need our colleagues and friends to listen—knowing someone is in your corner is the spark that ignites that power to succeed. Yet, so many of us find ourselves searching for the answers we already have, lacking only someone to elicit that confidence within. We attend conferences specifically for women and listen to speakers who give us advice on how to be a more powerful communicator to get what we want and how to use language effectively as a way to connect. Do we really need to spend resources to hear people tell us how we’re not good enough? Or buy yet another self-help book recycling the same messages about our imperfections? Think about all those admonitions about how we speak and the language we use: If we want to be taken seriously, we shouldn’t qualify our message with I think or I just or I wonder; we shouldn’t end our sentences in a question; we need to be succinct and not rush our speech and we shouldn’t laugh too loudly or chatter too much. Imagine the progress we could make if we didn’t focus on changing our language and brought our whole, imperfect selves into the workplace and other settings—and had someone there to let us know that this is perfectly alright. During this Women’s History Month, let’s own our thoughts, our wonderings, and if we speak loudly, or softly, let’s speak as our true, authentic selves. In gratitude, Deborah Re Sisterhood Speaks with Unbossed Women of Color Watch the recording of our Diversity Board's Facebook Live series: Sisterhood Speaks with Unbossed Women of Color. This month's installment is a conversation with two women who are standing out in their fields and their communities: psychiatric social worker Carla Monteiro and Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Shannon Frison. Click the button below to view the inspiring interview. (Pssst...fast forward to 2:45 for the start of the interview and make sure your sound is on!) Be sure to give our page a follow for more content like this and all things Big Sister. Women Supporting Women This month we've been highlighting women who are everyday history-makers, including our New Girls Network mentors. The New Girls Network is open to Big Sister staff and volunteers, and pairs women who are early in their careers with seasoned professionals in mentoring relationships. The New Girls Network is part of our continuum of mentoring that supports our community of women into adulthood and helps build community among working women. Below is an interview with two recent participants: Aly Bowman, match support specialist at Big Sister Boston, and Deborah Daccord, former Big Sister Board Chair, and member at Mintz. Click the button below to read about Aly and Deborah's mentoring relationship, then check out our other Sister Spotlights while you're there! MARK YOUR CALENDARProject Role Model Boston's role models, including our Big and Little Sisters, hit the runway in the latest fashions from up-and-coming local designers. Join us at our first in-person event of 2022 for an evening of fashion, fun, and fundraising in support of Big Sister Boston's mission! Click the button for event details, a preview of the designers, and to get your tickets today. Give & GetShop Global, Give LocalAmazonSmile customers can support Big Sister Association of Greater Boston in the Amazon shopping app on iOS and Android mobile phones! Simply follow these instructions to turn on AmazonSmile and start generating donations.
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