NYPD's 'Girl Talk' Mentorship Program Offers Support System For Teenage Girls
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The NYPD is trying to bridge the gap with young women across the city by creating support systems for girls who need someone to lean on, and Wednesday, the group was met by a surprise speaker.
A few months ago, 13-year-old Savannah Conti walked into a Staten Island police precinct to file a report when she struck up a conversation with an officer.
"She's like, hey, we have this program you probably would like. It's called 'Girl Talk,'" Savannah told CBS2's Ali Bauman.
So she went to a meeting.
"We talk about life. We talk about peer pressure," NYPD Officer Nicole Helmy said.
For Savannah, something clicked.
"I was like, wow, I feel like I actually belong somewhere," she said.
Chief of Patrol Juanita Holmes created "Girl Talk" as a police mentorship program for teenagers.
"I wanted them to know that they can be motivated, they can be determined and that they can achieve anything that they dream of, but they just have to be guided and met with the opportunity," Holmes said.
Precincts in each of the five boroughs host Girl Talk events on a regular basis, and then once a month, everyone gets together at police headquarters.
"I had my little doubts when I first came. I was like, is this gonna be another cringey girl's talk?" 13-year-old Raziya Palmer said.
But Raziya says she's able to bring real problems to the group.
"We do talk through them and that's allowed me to learn how to talk myself, talk myself through things and it's helped me become a better person," she said.
As the girls danced with their new friends Wednesday, in came a surprise guest -- world-renowned ballerina Misty Copeland.
"It was having a mentor that came into my life, that believed that I had the potential to be more than my surroundings," Copeland said.
Copeland says she hopes these girls walk away with the strong support systems and role models which brought her success.
"It's not about these girls wanting to be ballerinas or wanting to be artists, but seeing they're not defined by their circumstances," she said.
