Dartmouth’s young women are carving a space for themselves to tackle issues relevant to them. This week, they brought some of their youthful energy to the senior center.

Youth advocate Jen Cabral is currently leading “Girl Power,” a weekly group for girls in the 7th grade. Girl Power helps girls learn life skills, such as conflict resolution and boosting self esteem. The class schedule operates similar to college, with a winter session and fall session with a summer break in between.

“It’s a fun group to be apart of,” said Isabella Febbroriello, 13. “We talk about issues that young women face, like depression and anxiety.”

She said some of the most helpful information the class has covered relates to pop culture and body image.

“Anybody can join the group and anybody can make a referral at any point,” said Cabral. “It doesn’t have to come through the school, and it doesn’t have to be a kid who’s at risk. I like to have mentors with at-risk kids so they can learn and teach each other.”

In addition to Girl Power’s weekly meetings at Town Hall, the group ventures out on field trips. On Feb. 10, in preparation for Valentine’s Day, the young women met at the Council on Aging to assist some seniors with assembling holiday decorations.

“I wanted to get the different generations together and to allow the elderly to meet the adolescents and also the adolescents to be more comfortable with the elderly population,” said Cabral. “The girls, at first, were kind of nervous about it.”

The seniors were delighted by the visit from the middle school students. The two teams worked together to make paper flowers and heart-covered creatures made from red plastic cups.

“It’s been a good day so far. This young lady has been very helpful,” said Helen Lambert.

Lambert said that even though her dexterity isn’t what it used to be, the girls helped her construct the ornaments, asking for her input frequently during their creation. She said she’s planning on displaying the plastic-cup creature and paper flowers on the table in her living room.

“Everyone’s going say, ‘Grandma, you did such a good job.’ But I’ll tell the truth. I couldn’t have done it without the girls,” said Lambert.

Cabral said she’s hoping to add more peer groups to her line-up in the future, particularly for teens and for elementary school students. There is also a six-week miniseries in the works. Cabral’s two interns have been developing a curriculum for a lecture series dealing with anxiety.

Cabral’s next parent lecture series will be held on the evening of March 1. The subject will be ways that parents can start the conversation about opioid use.

For those interested in learning about Girl Power, Cabral’s office number is 508-910-1855.