Trek for Girls – History

Navigate Adolescence, Inc., (formerly Helping Girls Navigate Adolescence, Inc.), is a nonprofit organization devoted to providing kids and their parents the tools needed to navigate adolescence with confidence, resilience, and kindness.  Since its inception, the organization has grown tremendously in both scope and focus. In 2017, they began creating new programs for boys.  The organization officially became Navigate Adolescence in 2018.  All their programs for kids are designed to align with and support the State of Illinois Board of Education Social/Emotional Learning Standards.

In 2012, TriCity Family Services and the Geneva Coalition for Youth teamed up with HGNA (Helping Girls Navigate Adolescence) to bring Chick Chat to fourth and fifth grade girls in the TriCities, a program that was launched in Downers Grove in 2005.  Thanks to the tireless support and mentorship by both a team of HGNA volunteers and a local group of moms who shared our vision of raising emotionally healthier, more empowered girls, we were able to successfully launch Chick Chat by HGNA.  Thanks also to key administrators in CUSD 304 who recognized the benefits of offering this social-emotional learning opportunity to local students, a Geneva location was chosen for the launch in 2013.  Since this initial event, Chick Chat expanded to include sixth grade girls, as well as parent presentations addressing common age-related issues that girls are experiencing.

The success of our annual Chick Chat by HGNA events drove us to continue our partnership with HGNA with the launch of CORE in August 2016, a middle school transition workshop for incoming sixth-grade girls.  In September 2017, CORE was offered to 6^th grade girls.  Trek for Girls uses the “Trek: The Next Step” program curriculum created by Navigate Adolescence and is an updated version of CORE.  Based on feedback from students and parents, Trek for Girls and Trek for Boys are being offered on November 3, 2018 because by this point in the school year, the lessons taught by the facilitators and the guidance shared by the high schoolers in the panel discussion will be highly relevant to what the girls are currently experiencing in their transition to middle school.

Chick Chat by HGNA for 4^th and 5^th grade girls has been updated by Navigate Adolescence and was renamed Compass for Girls.  The Compass program will not be offered for 6^th graders.  Trek is the program for 6^th graders.

Compass for Girls and Compass for Boys will both be offered to 4^th and 5^th graders on Saturday, January 26, 2019 (with February 2, 2019 as the rescheduling date in case of cancellation due to inclement weather on January 26).

We look forward to welcoming your child to this year’s event!