Yes She Can is 2
It’s a good time to share with you what we have been up to this past year. Here are a few milestones this year:
- Trainees. We have helped 14 teens and young women develop job skills and workplace social skills, addressing each trainee’s unique needs and fostering her potential.
- Program. Our volunteer management team has refined our training techniques and assessment tools, and customized them for each trainee and intern.
- Donations. More than 50 teens and young women have donate their beloved American Girl doll collections this year – some have driven over 2 hours to personally deliver their collection, others have shipped theirs from Texas, California, Virginia, and Massachusetts.
- Inclusion. We have several high school girls who serve a social role models while cleaning dolls and preparing them for sale.
A Day in the Life of Girl AGain By Regina Poltrack
Dani G. is dressed in a Star Wars themed attire – black boots, belt, and tunic (she’s a big fan of the genre and had just been at New York Comic Con earlier in October where she wore her hand made costume). She’s cleaning and refurbishing donated dolls (some in better shape than others) — baking soda and water does the trick for the arms and legs… toothbrush helps with the fingers and toes but always be careful not to get water in or near the eyes as it will rust the inner workings behind those lovely eyes….
She then places the doll in a proper hairdresser’s chair (to scale of course) and begins to very carefully section and trim her hair…. The bob cut may look easy but requires attention to detail, precision work and a lot checking and rechecking the length of the individual sections. The result – a new day for this older doll!
In between her very careful work refurbishing the dolls she waits on customers in a gracious and welcoming manner.
Grandparents, a mom and mom’s youngest daughter enter the store. Big sister wants her her little sister have her own American Girl ® doll. Her mom and grandparents are browsing the boutique for just the right kind of doll – perhaps one which looks like little sister with her new short haircut…however little sister’s he
art is set on a doll that looks like she did BEFORE the haircut. The family leaves with a beautiful doll with long brown hair.
It is hard to know who is enjoying the store and the shopping experience more – the parents, grandparents or the children themselves.
Paige R. another trainee, is adept at researching the provenance of donated items and can recognize so many of the doll accessories by site… 
but she knows that if she gets frustrated in a search, to recognize it and move on to something different for a bit until she’s collected her thoughts and can move on.
Isabelle P. helps us sort through some new donations and identify which doll they belong to for preparing and resale. Researching the AmericanGirl Wikia, and other sites, for “varsity jacket” or “purple inline skates” for instance, we find precisely what we’re looking for so she can tag it accurately in the inventory management database and place it on the rack for sale.
All customers love the merchandise displays and look around in awe as if they’ve just stumbled into a fairy land in the middle of White Plains.
Marjorie Madfis, founder of Yes She Can Inc., a 501c3 non-profit established in 2013 comes into the store later in the afternoon…. She has just been at the JCC of Mid-Westchester Social Action Day where she raised awareness of Yes She Can organization and their dedication to developing transferable job skills and workplace social skills – through authentic work experience – for teen girls in transition from high school to adulthood and for young women with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) to enable them to gain employment and build careers in the competitive job market.
Before closing Girl AGain for the day, the trainees know to clean up the work space so that the next trainees that come in start with a clean table and a fresh to-do list.
Regina Poltreck is a communications professional in the IT industry and volunteers for Yes She Can.
Meet our Trainees
To create awareness of our mission and the impact we have had on the lives of our trainees we’ve created video profiles of several trainees – see how they have enhanced their job skills and workplace social skills through their work at Girl Again.
Our profile of Cassidy was awarded “Best Story Telling” by The Journal News for NonProfit Westchester Giving Tuesday video festival. Check out our videos on our Yes She Can YouTube channel
These profiles were produced by Phillipa Wharton and funded through a generous grant from the Adam Stuart Linhart Memorial Foundation.
Seeking trainees
Do you know someone who could benefit from our program? We are always interested in having more trainees join our program. If you are in the Westchester NY area, please refer our program to your school district, to parents of young women, and to agencies that provide services. Download this Yes She Can trainee recruiting flyer.
Hi. We have foster children and just a couple weeks ago took in two emergency placements. We have contacted several places but most have responded telling us we missed the cut off date for toys for tots and other programs. We have one little girl who told me she would love an American girl doll but knows she will never have one because they are too expensive. I was reading about your organization. First i want to say i am impressed and thank you for what a wonderful thing you are doing!! And second I wanted to ask for more information about your program or organization so we can try to get a doll for this little girl in our care. Thank you for what you do and thank you for your consideration. Blessings, jill
Please give us a call at the store and we can tell you what dolls we have 914-358-1460