Prevention       Shelter     Outreach
Alternatives For Girls helps homeless and high-risk girls and young women avoid violence, teen pregnancy and exploitation, and helps them to explore and access the support, resources and opportunities necessary to be safe, to grow strong and to make positive choices in their lives. AFG accomplishes this mission through three key services: AFG Prevention, the AFG Shelter and AFG Outreach.

AFG Prevention
Finding self-esteem, improving a grade-point average, rejecting drugs and alcohol, choosing abstinence, connecting with a mentor, discovering untapped talents — these are some of the experiences girls have when they take part in AFG Prevention programming. These experiences can happen in a summer (through the Rise-N-Shine program), during the course of a school year (through after-school workshops, study groups and girls’ clubs) or across the span of several years as girls mature from five to 18 years of age, building their characters on a foundation of positive choices.

More about Prevention >

AFG Shelter
New ideas, new paths, new people emerge from the AFG Shelter. It is a place where young women (16-21) who live in the present — without goals for, or a belief in, the future — discover abilities and callings that lead them toward meaningful careers and otherwise productive lives. It all begins with finishing diplomas and advancing toward degrees, developing a strong work ethic, becoming good mothers, acquiring financial literacy, learning cooperation and respect for others, and the growth of self-esteem. Participants redefine themselves and reshape their futures.

More about the Shelter >

AFG Outreach
AFG Outreach serves as a lifeline to many young women seeking to remove themselves from situations and activities that threaten their physical and mental well-being, their futures, their lives. Staff and volunteers encounter young women on the streets, in all seasons, during daylight and after dark, providing harm-reduction kits, a ride to AFG and other safe places — links to life-saving and support services.

More about Outreach >

Additional Services
Grief and Trauma Counseling
Resource Center for Walk-In Clients

Success Story Spotlight


A Mother-Daughter Triumph.

This past year was a year of triumph, progression, and tremendous transition for "Emily." It was also Emily's and her family's 10-year anniversary in AFG's Prevention Program.

Emily's mom, a widow for over a decade, has dedicated her life to her daughter and supporting her future. Due to her mother's failing health and a lack of extended family for assistance, a deep mother/daughter dependency developed over the years. This is why Emily's graduation from a top high school in Detroit, and her acceptance to a Michigan state college in the fall, was bitter-sweet.

Knowing that this was what her mother had been hoping for Emily all along, they turned to the Prevention Program staff for assistance on learning how to cope with this new venture in their lives. AFG staff helped Emily and her mother express their feelings about the new direction their lives and relationship were about to take, working through the fears and focusing on the hopes for Emily's future. Many hours were spent nurturing this delicate severance, not only from each other, but also from the day-to-day contact with the Prevention Program that they both had relied on for 10 years.

Emily returned to the Prevention house with her mother for a visit over the holidays, displaying yet another affirmation of her bright future: a record of her 3.8 grade point average for her first semester of college!


 
 
Home     Who We Are     What We Do     News & Events     How to Help     Contact Us
©2002-2008 Alternatives For Girls
Photography donated by Donita Simpson and Joseph Cracheola. Web design by Blue Sun Works, Inc.