The Boys & Girls Club of Elizabethton received a $6,500 to fund the new Girls U program that will be offered during this year’s Summer Program.

The club received a $6,500 grant from the Women’s Fund of East Tennessee to cover the cost of running the 10-week program this summer.

Girls U is open to all girls 9 and older, and all girls in the summer program have the option to participate, Boys & Girls Club Director Ginny Wright said. She expects about 65 girls to be a part of Girls U.

“It is a girls-only program designed to help girls build relationships, develop confidence and develop skills they will use later in life,” Wright said.

The program helps teach preteen and teen girls such skills as applying for college, career skills, health and wellness, etiquette and confidence building activities. Participants will go on college tours and will hear presentations from women leaders from within the community.

Speakers already lined up to speak during Girls U are local business owners, nonprofit leaders and medical professionals.

“We want to broaden their horizons,” Wright said. “We want our girls to know that being a successful woman comes in many different forms. We want them to think ‘I can be the president of a college. I can be an ER doctor. I can be the president of a business’.”

Girls U will be held on Tuesdays for each week of the Summer Program. Wright hopes completing the program helps change the way the youth look at their future.

“I hope the take away the knowledge that being a successful woman can mean a lot of different things,” she said. “I hope they understand they can dream big and they can accomplish those dreams.”

For more information, call the Boys and Girls club at 543-2946.