Mission Statement:

The Michigan Female Responsive Task Force supports the changes required to help girls and young women in Michigan achieve their full potential.

Vision Statement:

The Michigan Female Responsive Task Force will provide leadership to the belief that there is value in supporting girls and young women to reach their maximum potential. Girls and young women in Michigan must become self-reliant, educated, and healthy individuals in order to break the cycles of fear, violence, dependency, marginalization, and poverty. To achieve our vision, we encourage development of a continuum of individualized female responsive initiatives across the state of Michigan that support the six domains of female development including intellectual, physical, emotional, spiritual, sexual, and familial/relational.

Values Statement:

Growth and Empowerment: Strong leadership and support from caregivers are key to the development of self-esteem, self-sufficiency, and personal responsibility.

Understanding and Connecting: Understanding is expressed through tolerance for youth mistakes, so girls can learn from experience without being labeled for life. Understanding also means recognizing and respecting issues of diversity and cultural difference. Connecting allows us to rise above our isolation and embrace our differences to work together to help girls.

Proactive: Identify and build on the individual strengths of girls and their families. We must be creative in developing solutions that intervene before damage is done.

Equitable Access: To ensure that individualized services meet the needs of girls through providing equal access.

Goals:

Goal 1: Develop public awareness and commitment for female specific issues among policymakers, legislators, educators, and decision-makers in the juvenile and criminal justice systems.

Goal 2: Build community collaborations to provide local direction and support.

Goal 3: Generate a sustaining commitment to and financial support for gender-specific issues.

Goal 4: Create a continuum of individualized and empowering support for girls and young women.