Focus Fairies mentoring program helps girls in Chicago dealing with violence feel like kids again

The mentoring group Focus Fairies throws events for girls in Chicago who may be dealing with violence so they can feel like children again.

"Something as simple and magical as a tea party can help a young lady kind of escape trauma and feel like a child," said Coach Jhe of Focus Fairies. "You know, they go through so many experiences where they have to grow up fast and be adults in that moment and deal with seriousness in life. So it's all OK to sometimes just feel magical and feel like a child so that you can regroup and regain yourself."

Coach Jhe is a facilitator and said events like the Focus Fairies tea party are a way to help girls cope with their circumstances.

"If we can kind of teach them ow to hold onto who they were before they were introduced to that trauma, who they are, you know, at their core, then we can help them to understand trauma is going to come, but trauma is also going to go," she said.

And the benefit stretches beyond each girl.

"If I can reach that one, then they can reach one, and then that one can reach one, and then we have the snowball effect that occurs," Jhe said.

"So that snowball, that domino effect of lives that are transformed, makes a real impact on our young people," said Franklin Ballenger, development director of Focus Fairies. "Some days are great, and some days are days of opportunity to see lives transformed and make peace."

Girls who are in the Focus Fairies group said being with their mentors and therapists provided through the program helps them get ideas and find out about events, and learn how to focus on themselves and start loving themselves.