The Girls Club is the coming-of-age story of a young, white, working-class woman. Set in the 1970s, the story revolves around Cora Rose as she copes with her emerging sexuality, an illness her sisters refer to as "the dreaded bowel disease," and the conflicts created by the growing disparity between her desires and her Catholic upbringing. Part one deals with the three sisters' adolescent relationship to each other and their Catholic working-class world. Cora Rose's distress at being caught in an embrace with her best friend Stella leads her to sleep with the first boy who shows interest. She is married with a child at age eighteen. Part two shows how the sisters help and hinder each other in their struggles to take control and responsibility over their lives. Part three reveals Cora Rose's physical challenges, including an ostomy, that further complicate her feelings about her sexuality and increase her need for her sisters' support. She becomes involved with a woman she meets at a bar called The Girls Club. Marie and Renee play out their own struggles as Cora Rose leaves her husband, fights to keep her child, and overcomes religious and social prejudices that threaten her personal integrity. Sally Bellerose was awarded a Fellowship in Literature from the National Endowment for the Arts based on an excerpt from this book. The manuscript was a finalist for the James Jones Fellowship, the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize, and the Bellwether Endowment. Sally Bellerose lives in Northampton, Massachusetts. .

In The Little Girls Club, a dangerous partnership between a sniper and a corrupt policeman leads to dire consequences for those caught in their crosshairs. As the sniper becomes embroiled in their dangerous scheme, a stolen son, thought to be living abroad, reappears in the community, causing confusion and raising questions about his identity. Meanwhile, a prominent member of society’s fall from grace leads to tragic consequences for those close to him. As families flee in fear of the rogue cop, the novel takes readers on a journey filled with twists and turns, exploring the impact of power, corruption and justice on the lives of those affected. The story weaves its way through the terror of being hunted and the search for safety and redemption, as the characters are forced to come to terms with the past and forge a new path for their future.

After World War II the Girls Club of Brooklyn, New York, became home and safe haven to a small group of young women, orphaned in the Holocaust, whose stories represent the experiences of tens of thousands of child survivors. This book follows them from childhood to the present as they, contrary to early predictions, built new and successful lives in America. In old age the women, once again, are defying bleak expectations.

Judi Adams is an internationally recognized strategic planner and organizational coach, providing strategic planning services across the country and around the globe. She has over twenty-five years of experience in organizational development, is a mentor trainer using the Techniques of Participation (ToP ), and is a licensed marriage and family therapist with a master's degree in education from the University of Southern California. She developed The Big Girls Club Workshop Series for women who work with other women and want to do it better!

Through a comprehensive review of various afterschool programs across the United States, this resource provides a practical overview of the research and best practices that can be easily adapted and applied in the development of highly effective afterschool programs. chapters focus on: (1) "Why Afterschool Programs?" (benefits, challenges, and functions, research methodology, types of programs, and program evaluation); (2) "Language Arts Afterschool Programs" (e.g., extended-day tutoring and the Coca-Cola Valued Youth Program); (3) "Enrichment Afterschool Programs" (e.g., Hands On Science Outreach and the Imaginitis Learning System); (4) "Tutoring Programs to Improve Reading and Study Skills Programs" (e.g., Book Buddies and Early Identification Programs); (5) "Community-Based Afterschool Programs" (e.g., Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and Police Athletic League); (6) "How to Create an Afterschool Program: From Conception to Implementation" (e.g., assessing the situation, creating the components, and training the service providers); (7) "Evaluation" (e.g., why evaluation is important, effective evaluations, and creating a solid evaluation infrastructure); and (8) "Conclusions and Implications: What Works" (patterns of success among the programs and barriers to participation). A list of resources is included. (Contains 143 references.) (SM)