The Estevan Public Library promoted confidence among tween and teenage girls during its annual self-esteem sleepover Feb. 7 and 8.
Nearly a dozen girls gathered in the library for the event. Christine Batke, who is the children’s programmer for the library, said the event was a success and she believes it fulfilled its mandate.
“It’s a very positive event,” said Batke. “And I think it has the potential to have a really positive impact on youth’s self-esteem or self-image, and I think it brings together a lot of the youths that are already attending my programs in a really wholesome environment, so that they feel welcome.”
This year she had some community facilitators. In previous editions, she ran the event by herself, but due to the high needs of some of the participants, she wanted to have the right connections in place to support the growth.
“We had two facilitators this year, and in the future, we’re hoping to get some more,” said Batke. “I’ve reached out to a couple of different organizations that are hoping to jump on board for next year.”
The first facilitator was Juli Dzuba from the Envision Counselling and Support Centre, who ran their ice-breaker activity and some group sessions for the girls, based on positive self-esteem and self-image.
Then Marissa Tisdale from Wandering Wellness ran a talking circle for the girls.
“They made their own journals and put some positive goals into those as well,” said Batke.
Boston Pizza provided pizza for the participants. Games took place later on in the night to enrich the participants, and they watched movies as well. It proved to be a late night before they went to bed.
In previous years, the sleepover has been for Grades 5-8, but after talking to the facilitators for this year, and after seeing some of the needs for older children, they decided to concentrate on Grades 7-9.
