Mental health needs of Black and Hispanic girls often go unmet. This Waukegan group wraps them in support.

Editor’s note: This story about Working on Womanhood was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. On a sunny but brisk November afternoon inside Robert Abbott Middle School in Waukegan, six eighth grade girls quickly filed into a small but colorful classroom and seated themselves in a circle. Yuli Paez-Naranjo, a Working on Womanhood counselor, sported a purple WOW T-shirt as she led the group in a discussion about how values can inform decisions. “Do you ever feel like two little angels are sitting on each of your shoulders, one whispering good things to you, the other whispering bad things?” Paez-Naranjo asked the girls. The students nodded and giggled. At the 50-minute WOW circle, girls have a chance to set aside the pressures of the school day, laugh with and listen to one another, and work through personal problems. The weekly meeting is the centerpiece of individual and group therapy that WOW offers throughout the school year to Black and Hispanic girls, and to students of all races who identify as female or nonbinary, in grades 6 to 12. Created in 2011 by Black and Hispanic social workers at the...