When the nonprofit Women of the Dream organization began working on life skills and college preparation with girls from Camden public schools, an alarming trend began to emerge.

The nonprofit – with a mission to “empower, cultivate and inspire” young Camden women to help them succeed – found that underlying behavior issues often grew from some type of trauma that never had been addressed.

Addressing trauma for high school girls was added to the organization’s existing programs, which teach life skills and college preparation to young women. The nonprofit also each year sends young women to a STEM conference for girls at Drexel University.

“Many of our girls answered ‘yes’ to having experienced childhood trauma, and ‘no’ to not having received counseling for this trauma,” says Leslie Morris, founder and CEO of Women of the Dream. “We realized that trauma is driving a lot of the behaviors that we see in our kids.”

A “trauma Informed” program was rolled out for girls in the high schools that share the Camden High School campus.

But Morris, a retired career social work professional who worked with young people in urban areas across New Jersey and in other East Coast states, and her group realized that trauma needed to be considered before the girls reach high school so each of them has a better shot at success when they reach high school.

Women of the Dream applied to the Camden Education Fund for a grant to add a program to address trauma in middle-school girls and received $40,000. Its program for middle-schoolers debuts this fall at Veterans Memorial Family School and Morgan Village Middle School.

“There are many outstanding organizations across the city committed to helping our young people reach their full potential,” said Camden Education Fund Executive Director Giana Campbell. “We are grateful to be in a position to support Women of the Dream this year as a $40,000 Youth Serving Organization grantee and amplify their impact.”

Women of the Dream already teaches life skills at the two middle schools and now has a foundation to offer a program for eighth graders aimed at moving them beyond their traumas.

Trauma has a broad meaning and, within what is called “trauma,” are several classifications that include acute, chronic and complex. The trauma could rise from sexual, physical or verbal abuse. Or its roots may be in emotional neglect or bullying at home or school.

Discovering the need to intervene with younger students was one of two lessons learned from the high school program, she says. The other was that the best outcomes occur when a parent or parents are part of the program.

Women of the Dream found that, in some homes, a parent was working hard to have the family survive by providing food, shelter and clothing. But sometimes the parent or parents were working so hard on the basics that they were not emotionally available, resulting in feelings of abandonment by the girls, Morris says.

Some of the parents who worked with the organization found they were not even aware that they were not meeting the emotional needs of their children.

“Parents are essential to the healing process for our girls,” Morris says.

No matter the source of the trauma, the girls often silently carry with them depression and anxiety that result from trauma. The ones who rise to the top of the list for attention are those who respond to a survey to report that they are depressed “almost every day.” Issues that include ideas of suicide often emerge from this group.

Ultimately, “our goal is to get these girls out of high school and to put them on a path to successful outcomes in their lives.” In doing so, the overarching benefit may be to break the cycle of poverty.

Morris credits Camden schools Superintendent Katrina T. McCombs for her support of the nonprofit program, making them partners at the middle and high schools served. Morris also says school principals and the teaching staff have helped make the Women of the Dream program a success.

The CEF grant will enable Women of the Dream hire psychology and social work professionals to work directly with the middle-school group.

One of the professionals working with the girls will be Adelina Hernandez, who left Camden to study at Caldwell University in North Jersey and then earn her Master’s in Social Work from Rutgers-Camden.

What makes Hernandez stand out is that in 2017 she was one of the annual scholarship recipients from Women of the Dream.

“That’s what you want to see,” Morris says: a young woman sent out from Camden to succeed and then return to help others.