PACE Center for Girls

PACE Center for Girls operates 19 nonresidential, year-round program sites across Florida for at-risk girls between 11 and 17. The program is voluntary, and participants receive academic instruction and advising, life skills curriculum, assessment and care planning, counseling, parental engagement, volunteer services, work-readiness opportunities, and transition and follow-up services.

Gender-responsive approaches were developed as a response to the recognition that most services in the current juvenile system are based on the needs of boys. The implementation evaluation of the PACE Center for Girls' gender-responsive programming found:

• The PACE Program was implemented consistently across multiple locations, although some variations occurred due to staffing and access to resources.
• PACE incorporated gender-responsive programming into all services through a focus on safety and relationships, an emphasis on recognizing and building on girls’ individual strengths, and an awareness of the effects of trauma.
• Girls who attend PACE tend to be low-income, and they often struggle with school and have a range of other health, safety, and delinquency risk factors.
• PACE differed from the traditional school environment by offering smaller classes, access to frequent individual academic advising and counseling, life skills programming, and connections to other services in the community, such as transportation or health care.