Cheryl Ann Wadlington started the Evoluer House 21 years ago with a mission – helping young girls be successful. She explained there are many challenges young women in the region face, particularly girls of color.
“We discovered that there were so many issues that were facing, particularly girls of color, where they were being funneled from a school to prison, they were more likely to get suspended from school than other races … and they were being written up with infractions for wearing their hair natural,” she said. “It’s a slew of issues and challenges.”
The Evoluer House was born to help mitigate these challenges. The organization provides empowerment programming and workshops for young women, and specifically focuses on helping improve the mental health of those from underserved communities.
Wadlington said investing in this kind of programming is the key to making communities more successful.
“If you want to have a productive future for women, from the research we’ve seen, there’s nothing more valuable than investing in girls,” she said.
Programming
The Evoluer House offers several programs – including personal and professional development workshops, podcast training and mental health workshops. The personal and professional development workshops are the Evoluer House’s “signature programs.”
“Girls from all over the country will come,” she said. “And in that nine-week workshop, they learn everything from heavy topics like intersectionality and how to navigate micro aggressions, girls rights and education, resume writing and sexual health and healthy relationships, which includes in that teen violence and teen dating.”
Workshops contain sessions Monday to Wednesday, and then an “Empower Hour” once a week with influential women guest speakers.
The programs at the Evoluer House heavily align with ensuring young girls have the skills to succeed through adulthood, said Tracy Wood, chairperson of the Evoluer House.
“The goal of the Evoluer House is to empower young teens within marginalized communities with skill sets to help them succeed in education and in their personal lives,” she said. “This includes having a healthy mental lifestyle, physical lifestyle, and also understanding their body when it comes to sexual health as well. We also concentrate on financial literacy, public speaking, self-advocacy and knowing how to mitigate conflict resolution. These are skills needed for everyone, whether it be girls, boys, teens or adults, to have the tools needed to succeed in their personal lives and also their career.”
The Evoluer House also recently received a grant from MTV ahead of Mental Health Action Day to further support their mission. During Mental Health Action Day, on May 15, the Evoluer House provided community-focused mental health programming.
“We partnered with Girard College, and we had over 55 girls,” Wood said. “They had workshops that talked about how they can identify a mental health issue, or if something was getting too heavy, what to do when that happens, and also how they can help a friend who might be on the verge of suicide.”
In addition to this special program, the Evoluer House regularly runs mental health workshops.
The importance of investment
Black youth in Philadelphia experience what the National Institute of Health terms a “significant mental health burden.” Nationwide, recent data from the CDC shows suicide rates for Black youth ages 10 to 19 have increased by 54% since 2019. Additionally, racism can compound mental health issues for BIPOC communities.
Wadlington said she hopes her group can counter these challenges with positive, empowering programming and mental health supports.
“People would really be surprised how much teen girls are suffering in our community,” she said. “So we provide a platform and a safe space where they can learn and receive information to be their personal best.”
Marmia Day was a participant in Evoluer House’s programming 10 years ago. Now a graduate of Reading Area Community College, she explained she will never forget the lessons the program taught her and ways it changed her life.
“It’s hard to articulate just how it’s helped me because a lot of it is subtle,” she said. “It’s daily things. It’s having an increased amount of self-esteem. It’s not having as much imposter syndrome as I would have, stuff like that. The program was only a few months, but it had a profound effect on my life that I’m still feeling 10 years later.”
Day said the program’s lessons on presenting yourself appropriately and other lessons like financial literacy and nutrition advice stuck with her beyond the program’s end.
“Going to the Evoluer House helps a lot with not just my physical image, but also understanding how people are going to view you when you dress a certain way, when you act a certain way and how you present yourself in public,” she shared.
Day explained the programming is unique, as it directly addresses mental and physical health challenges girls are currently facing.
“Right now, there’s an epidemic,” she said. “These girls’ mental health and self-esteem is under attack right now between social media and the different expectations that are placed on them. I feel like the Evoluer House program is a really good program to help combat that.”
Wood explained it is especially important to invest in programs that cater to each child’s unique background.
“In a school, you have 30 kids in the classroom learning the same information,” she said. “This program is more of a boutique environment where we treat every individual teen differently.”
She said programs like Evoluer House expand upon skills that may not otherwise be offered to girls in schools or other programs.
“These programs teach a curriculum that may not be touched on in a regular school district,” she said. “So it’s the soft skills, the skills that may not be on a resume.”
Wood said many graduates of Evoluer House’s programming have moved on to successful careers.
“We’ve had a student in the program that was just on The Voice,” she said. “And, all of our students come from different kinds of career choices. So this student – she’s a singer, and to be a final contestant on The Voice is pretty amazing. Then we have a student that is currently in a Berklee School of Music, who’s a singer. We also have some leaders in Philadelphia that have graduated from the Evoluer House that work in nonprofit and community-based organizations.”
Uplifting these programs not only helps program participants succeed, but it also helps society move forward, Wood said.
“When girls succeed, we all succeed,” she said. “Or when students succeed, we all succeed.”
The organization’s upcoming “Holistic Me” virtual workshop will take place from June 23 to August 22. Those interested can register until June 20.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
