Adolescent Girls Expertise (AGE) Center
The health and wellbeing of adolescent girls in Israel does not receive adequate attention; there is a lack of professionalism and understanding of the subject matter.
The Adolescent Girls Expertise Center was established to address needs in the field:
Educate and take action
Raise awareness about health and healthy sexuality
Discussion on appropriate actions
Raise key dilemmas
Activities include working with girls, mothers, and education/healthcare teams, as well as gathering relevant data, research, and literature.
We’ve put together a diverse and comprehensive plan, innovative and professional, aimed at our target audience: adolescent girls, and specifically girls at risk; parents; and professional education and healthcare teams.
We focus our activity in three main channels
Workshops and knowledge/action groups
For over a decade, Women and their Bodies has been running workshops and knowledge and action groups for adolescent girls, parents, and education/healthcare teams, as well as workshops for bat-mitzva-age girls and their mothers. The workshops are an opportunity to learn about and share various issues related to the health and wellbeing of adolescent girls, such as gender, sexual and gender identity, body image, healthy eating and avoiding eating disorders, anatomy and menstruation, contraception, healthy sexuality, how to prepare for a gynecological exam, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, diseases and symptoms to be aware of, and more.
Our workshop program developed from recognizing the real need to educate and take action on promoting the topic of girls and their bodies, and raising their awareness about health and sexuality. This demand frequently comes up through our work: in workshops, with women professionals in the field, and with various bodies and foundations.
Writing
Writing bodies of knowledge and mapping existing services in the domain of young and adolescent girls’ health and sexuality from various perspectives. The information is written and produced in collaboration with girls, adolescents, and the education/healthcare staff. The main topics are eating, anatomy, healthy sexuality, contraception, and abortion.
To read articles (in Hebrew) and view videos we produced click here
Research
Women and their Bodies plans to conduct a study on the attitudes and needs of girls ages 13-18 across Israel. The project has yet to commence and is in the fundraising stage.
No such comprehensive study of girls has ever been undertaken in Israel, to map the needs and attitudes regarding their health, bodies, and sexuality. WTB plans to conduct a national study using various research methods (qualitative and quantitative, individual and group) that will enable a comprehensive picture of these issues among girls across the country. The study will include girls from all population groups; normative and at-risk girls of all classes, covering cultural and linguistic diversity.
