{"id":410,"date":"2022-08-07T12:33:44","date_gmt":"2022-08-07T12:33:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/blog\/?p=410"},"modified":"2025-01-24T15:31:09","modified_gmt":"2025-01-24T15:31:09","slug":"safe-spaces-there-is-nothing-more-secure-than-a-place-that-allows-you-to-become-a-better-version-of-yourself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/safe-spaces-there-is-nothing-more-secure-than-a-place-that-allows-you-to-become-a-better-version-of-yourself","title":{"rendered":"Safe Spaces: \u201cThere is nothing more secure than a place that allows you to become a better version of yourself.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Every girl has the right to feel physically and emotionally safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaliyah, a Pace Miami girl who aspires to become a doctor, reflected on her definition of \u2018safe space\u2019 and shared: \u201cWhen I come to Pace, I feel more of a homey<\/em> vibe. I come to Pace, and I feel comfortable. I don’t feel scared to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Pace, we incorporate self-reflection and mindfulness into curriculum and encourage creativity as a means of self-expression. Unique to the Pace model is \u201cSpirited Girls,\u201d a dedicated class that offers girls gentle guidance and supports their self-discovery and growth. The curriculum focuses on the developmental needs of girls, life and vocational skills, diversity, spirituality and empowerment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like other schools have classes like Spirited Girls. So, it\u2019s unique. The class is different, so it should be a different environment,\u201d shared Alexis, a Pace Miami girl in eleventh grade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jaliyah and Alexis\u2019s reflections \u2014 along with the 80 girls who attend Pace Miami \u2014 inspired a dynamic cohort of 10 leadership Miami professionals, known as Genesis 305, to revamp and enhance Pace Miami\u2019s Spirited Girls classroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDue to the short time frame of our project, we were unsure that we would gain the necessary funds to put the Spirited Girls classroom together. But as we as a team continued to tell the story of Pace, more and more people saw the dream that we had for the program, and the support from the community blossomed,\u201d shared Jessie Caceres, Events & Communications Specialist at Chapman Partnership and member of Genesis 305.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through involvement with the Miami Chamber of Commerce, the Genesis 305 team remained steadfast in their efforts to fundraise for Pace Miami and immerse themselves in Pace\u2019s vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cAll of the furniture was donated for the classroom which gave us the opportunity to catapult the rest of the project to not only focus on the classroom but the school itself. It’s been an incredible experience seeing the power of community work towards this common goal,\u201d noted Jessie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Genesis 305 ultimately fundraised over $61,000 to support the project \u2014 accomplishing well beyond their goal. The team coined the term \u2018heart work\u2019 and repainted the entire Pace Miami building, partnered with a local muralist to develop a mural inspired by Pace girls, provided building repairs, and donated new technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPace taught us that girls learn differently, they need the space to thrive, to create, to process and decide who they will become when they leave. There is nothing more secure than a place that allows you to become a better version of yourself,\u201d shared Ekaete Ikpeinyang, member of Genesis 305 and Director of Clinical Nursing Operations & Integration at Jackson Health System.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If you\u2019d like to contribute to Pace\u2019s Spirited Girls programming, or would like to learn more about how to get involved with Pace, visit: <\/em>Get Involved | Pace Center for Girls<\/em><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every girl has the right to feel physically and emotionally safe. Jaliyah, a Pace Miami girl who aspires to become a doctor, reflected on her definition of \u2018safe space\u2019 and shared: \u201cWhen I come to Pace, I feel more of a homey vibe. I come to Pace, and I feel comfortable. I don’t feel scared […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":416,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"post_tag":[70],"class_list":["post-410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-partnerships","tag-pace-miami"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":427,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410\/revisions\/427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_tag?post=410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}