Peer Advisor Restore: Afryea’s Experience

I was intrigued after hearing about the Peer Advisor Restore Cohort. Sister Angela introduced it it to the Girls For A Change (GFAC) Peer Advisors at one of our meetings.   She brought in the program facilitars Sister Ashley Williams and Sister Kiran Bhagat from BareSOUL Yoga to explain the program. They entailed how we would create our own self-care plans and work with youth in middle schools. I aspire to be a Social Worker and this program seemed like perfect prep for me. I didn’t think I would be able to do it because of my busy schedule.  After a conversation with my mother, I decided to sign up for it. I fell in love with the program at our very first session. I arrived and was was greeted with kind energy and love. Sister Ashley and Sister Kiran introduced us to the other Restore Cohort Leaders, MJ and Freedom. They told us what to expect from the program and we created our own self care rituals. It focused on different factors like physical and spiritual ways we can take care of ourselves.   

Our Retreat 

We had a two-day retreat at the Gloucester Institute. It was wonderful being on Black-owned land to work on our own mental health and learn how we can serve others.   Our theme over the retreat was learning what we would do in our time as Peer Advisors.  We discussed what a servant leader was and did practices and examples on how we can be servant leaders. It was a fun opportunity to get to know the other girls and foster sisterhood.  

Supporting Middle School girls at MLK 

I was extremly excited when we got hands on experience working with middle school girls. We shadowed sessions with the Young Queens in Action at Martin Luther King Middle School. After we shadowed, we created our own healing circles to work with the girls. I enjoyed getting to know the girls and was saddned and perplexed learning about them. They would casually mention traumatic events like it was nothing. They would oftentimes say it in a joking or matter of fact manner. I loved seeing the relationships the girls built with the Restore Cohort servant leaders. You could tell they trusted them and cared for them. When it was my turn to lead a session, I was able to problem solve and work with the other girls. Unexpected changes happened in our program but we were able to work around it and work together to continue to have a smooth circle. We discussed beauty standards and it was insightful seeing how the media influences the girls. They had immence wisdom and confidence and were willing to share how they felt.  

Girl Ambassador Participants

Our last session in the Girl Ambassador Program was a day long retreat back at the Glouster Institute. The Peer Advisors for the Restore Cohort were leading healing circles for the day. When we led the circles I wasn’t nervous. Most of the girls I already knew and felt comfortable with. I loved getting to know everyone better and it was really fun. We laughed and were able to build sisterly bonds.   

My overall experience 

I’ve had an amazing time. As mentioned before I want to work in mental health. This program has allowed me to foster my passion for helping others into a concrete goal.  I’ve gotten to learn what it means to be a servant leader and foster relationships with more people in the community.