Chicago native shares inspiration behind her mentorship program
Jamila Trimuel at “Say Her Name” Rally Saturday, Sept. 26, 2020, outside the Richard J. Daley Center. Photo by Sabrina Hart.
Ladies of Virtue mentor Jamila Trimuel, 39, grew up on the Southeast side of Chicago in the South Shore community. She remembers how her father would always tell her, "You're an African girl, you could do anything you set your mind to."
Trimuel's parents instilled the expectation of attending college within her at a young age, but in her junior year of high school she learned her friends did not have the same upbringing. Some of her friends had fathers killed by gun violence and others had mothers in their households who were not a positive influence.
When she was a junior applying to colleges she also noticed her friends did not have plans after high school while others were trying to get by with whatever they had. These encounters inspired her to become a mentor, and she recognized how mentors could influence the trajectory of a student's life. Although Trimuel’s parents divorced when she was five, what remained consistent in her life was her parents’ who poured into her dreams and told her she could overcome any obstacle.
"I remember when my parents got divorced. That was a difficult time for me. I'm the oldest of three siblings, so I didn't have anyone outside of my peers," Trimuel said. "Of course, I didn't have anyone older that I felt comfortable to talk to, like another older woman. So I always felt like I had to keep those emotions bottled up inside. I think that having a mentor would have been good during those times."
When Trimuel entered her sophomore year in college at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign she answered her calling and became a mentor. After graduating in 2003 with a degree in community health with a focus in finance, health administration, she began volunteering at the YMCA, New Life Covenant Southeast Church, Chicago Urban League, and Toastmasters.
From these involvements, she met some of the girls she would serve in the future. Through her volunteer work, she began establishing relationships with four or five high school students that she mentored over time, and they would stay in contact with her.
Trimuel said, "I think in terms of me building relationships, it really just comes from caring. Listening and being dedicated and helping hand when needed and just being sincere about being in that person's life."
Suddenly, the idea came to her to start a mentorship program of her own. She mentioned the idea to her mentees, and one day, one of her mentees, a senior in high school, asked her when she was going to start the mentor program.
This prompted Trimuel to put arrangements in place to begin the mentorship program Ladies of Virtue in 2009 and then went into development for two years. Jamila Trimuel is now the founder and chief executive officer of Ladies of Virtue (LOV) and a mentor to over two hundred girls within her organization.
Ladies of Virtue's goal is to build long-lasting lasting relationships between the mentors and their mentees through hands-on interactions and dedication. According to the organization's website, their mission is to instill purpose, passion, and perseverance in girls ages 9-18 while preparing them for college, careers and to become change agents in their communities. The non-profit organization was launched on Oct. 1, 2011, and is approaching its ninth year anniversary. Trimuel explained her motivation behind launching LOV by saying, "It was really to stand in the gap for girls who may not have positive role models in their lives or who just needed more positive women to encourage them."
Jamila Trimuel (center) posing for photo at a event. Image courtesy Ladies of Virtue
The participants are Black girls in the Chicagoland area from under-resourced communities. LOV has seven programs like "Power to the Professional" and "Dress for Success." After they graduate from high school, they automatically become a part of the LOV 4 Life Alumni and can receive support and guidance for the next six years. Trimuel believes these are critical years of a girl's life where mentors can intervene to help shape and mold future generations.
"I believe that mentors live a life that's worthy of being modeled, and the girls that I serve encourage me to strive for better, to strive for greatness, and to be a woman of my word and a woman of integrity," Trimuel emphasized.
LOV's mentors and program staff teach culturally relevant curriculums to educate their mentees and participants about their own history and the world around them. In addition to that, they expose their girls to new people and careers while empowering them.
Throughout the years, Trimuel's organization has equipped over a thousand girls they've served with growth and experience to turn them into confident, purpose-driven leaders in three ways: character development, career readiness, and civic engagement.
Sarai Funches, a sophomore at Eastern Illinois University, is majoring in Theatre and Production and minoring in Communication. She is a current Alumni in the LOV 4 Life and shares several ways LOV has influenced her personally and professionally.
"I didn't have many role models or Black females who I could consider as a role model in my life. When I joined Ladies of Virtue, and as the years accumulated, I can say that it has made me more proper and comfortable with my speaking voice. It has made me grow out of my shell," Funches said.
For character development, Ladies of Virtue presents a new LOV law theme every month that provides a framework for their girls to understand what a lady of virtue really means. Based on the theme of the month, each girl will share what that theme means. Then the girls facilitate an activity to demonstrate to their peers the importance of the theme. This activity helps the girls start living out those values every day of their lives.
A photo of the LOV Laws that the participants implement in their lives every month/ Image courtesy Ladies of Virtue
"Character development is all about knowing your strengths, knowing your weaknesses. It's about self-awareness and knowing what you have to work on," Trimuel said. "It's also about finding your purpose, and really understanding what you're passionate about."
The civic engagement program helps the girls identify areas in the modern workforce that they are passionate about. LOV offers them space and opportunity to use that burning desire to go out in their communities and implement the change they want to see. Before taking action, the girls discuss what it means to be a Black girl in Chicago and what issues affect them the most.
After discussing the matter in question, the conversation transitions into solutions, and girls must ask themselves how they can be the ones to initiate change. The participants are then paired in groups of three or four girls who have a similar passion. They then partner with community organizations already out there doing the work in their areas of interest.
The final step is for the girls to use what they were taught from that engagement and go out to present and spread awareness about those specific topics in their communities or schools. While the participants take part in those community projects for two to four months, they learn public speaking, project management, and collaboration skills that are important for the workplace.
The career readiness program, Power to the Professional, teaches the participants to build their resume, interview preparation, and what it means to be a Black woman in the workplace.
After building on those skills, the girls go through Dress for Success, a program that demonstrates to girls how to dress in a professional setting and goes beyond teaching young women how to dress according to the size and shape of their body.
"This year 91% of our girls aged 16 and over were employed. This is so important because research shows that when college graduates worked as teenagers, they make 10 to 15% more than those who did not,” Trimuel said. “So that's why we are always looking out for our girls to make sure that they are employed because we know that they're learning those skills that they'll need for when they enter the workplace."
LOV does not only focus on the professional aspect of their participants' lives but the emotional as well. Trimuel has a licensed clinical therapist who leads discussions in workshops to teach the students how to manage their emotions and provide training centered within self-reflection while going over various coping mechanisms.
Trimuel's proudest moments are when participants take what they've been taught from the experiences offered to them by her organization throughout high school and college and apply it to their futures.
"When I see how my girls are taking what we provided to them and literally running with it and just doing amazing things that makes me proud, "Trimuel said.
As an advocate, Trimuel hopes her organization influences the girls it serves to come back and be a mentor themselves.
"Don't forget about, you know, those who helped you to get to where you are," Trimuel said.