OUR RESULTS
To date, more than 450 Latina teens have gone through Life is Precious. With the services they received at LIP, their academic performance has improved– where once 50% of these young women were held back or dropped out of school, now almost 100% advance to the next grade on time. They have improved family relationships – finding the language, the support, and the approach with which to work out deep personal conflicts with parents and grandparents who struggle to understand what they are going through or what they need. They are making friends – finding solace in the company and support of girls who are going through the same battles that they are. They are feeling new pride in their bi-lingual, bi-cultural backgrounds.
With funding from the New York Community Trust, we have been working with Columbia University/New York State Psychiatric Institute to evaluate LIP's effectiveness. The findings show that for every month a Latina teen participates in LIP, her level of depression and suicide ideation decreases. Further, girls who admitted to higher risk behavior, alcohol and drug use or were victims of sexual abuse, showed even more profound improvement.
You can read more about our programs from participants themselves:
In the last decade, more than 450 Latina teens ages 12 to 17, have received services at
Life is Precious™, and not one has completed suicide!
Soleda
The program taught me that I’m not alone. Other girls get mad, just like me – and sometimes for the same reasons as me. When I see other girls opening up, I feel braver.
Destiny
If anything, God forbid, happened to any of us, it would hurt all of us. So we all take better care of ourselves.
Rosa
They know when you need help here – you don’t even have to tell them. They give you their hand. And then they give it again. They give it till you know they really mean it.