This story was first published in the Miami Times. To view the story, click here.
Each Saturday morning, Louissita Virgile’s photography studio in Miami Gardens is buzzing with 21 girls, all clad in pink jackets, eagerly waiting for the next session of their mentorship program, Girls of Honor.
“I watched my girls [go] from being depressed to being happy,” Virgile, 41, said of the previous groups she’s coached.
Inspired by her own struggles with childhood homelessness, Virgile started Girls of Honor eight years ago and has since taught more than 200 girls aged between kindergarten through 12th grade about self-care, etiquette, mental health and leadership.
“I had struggled with that growing up, loving myself and thinking anything was love,” Virgile recalled, explaining how her experience helped shape the program.
Growing up in Liberty City, both her parents died of complications from AIDS, which placed the then 10-year-old Virgile and her three siblings in a foster home. A little over a year later, the Department of Children and Families removed Virgile and her siblings without explanation, instead moving them to a Homeless Assistance Center in downtown Miami. Her older sister became their legal guardian when she turned 18, and she saved enough money to rent a place for the siblings.
When a neighbor sexually assaulted then 12-year-old Virgile, she moved back in with her first foster family, but was kicked out at 16. That night was the first time she slept in a park, without any protection – though not the last. “The system never came and looked for me. No caseworker, nobody,” Virgile said.
“I felt like I needed a hero, somebody to come and save me, somebody to come and make a path for me,” she recalled.
High school became an escape, a safe building where she could eat breakfast and lunch, and she attended night school Mondays through Thursdays and took part in dance, track, cheerleading and drama classes, all “just to kill time,” she said.
After she graduated from Miami Edison Senior High School, she moved in with a friend at 19. She later moved out and gave birth to the first of her nine children.
Virgile worked in retail, spent a few years out of state and picked up photography as a hobby when she started taking photos of her children as babies. At 25, she returned to Miami to start her own photography business, Queenbee Photo Art.
She also started a mobile kids spa company called “Rock Divas” at 27, where she “pampered little girls” with mani-pedis, makeup and playing dress up. After three years, Virgile closed the company because business was slow and she didn’t have the money to continue.
After hosting a back-to-school drive powered by Rock Divas on Aug. 16, 2016 at Miami Bridge Youth and Family Services, Virgile met “a lot of lost little girls,” which prompted her to start the mentorship program Girls of Honor about eight years ago at Thine Inheritance Worship Center (TIWC), the Christian church she attended in Miami. The small group of five girls grew quickly. When the pandemic forced TIWC to shut its doors, she first rented hotel rooms so the group could continue to meet. That, however, wasn’t financially sustainable.
Finding a place to meet with them was a challenge, but Virgile knew she wanted to pull through and “just kept trying.” Eventually, she decided to hold the meetings at her photography studio.
Last month, the girls talked about sexual violence, and now, they’re planning to sell cookies, makeup, accessories and other products made by the elementary and middle school girls, while the girls in high school will be selling books about their personal life experiences at the Dr. Dorothy Bendross Mindingall Social-Economic Institute.
When Girls of Honor was registered as a nonprofit organization last year, Virgile spread the word on social media and quickly saw her inbox flooded with inquiries.
“Right now we have a waiting list for girls that want to join the program,” she said, adding that she lacks the funding to accept more girls into the program.
Raising funds, however, has been tough, she said, adding that she feels that programs tailored for boys, like basketball and football, received more support. “They’ll get funding before we get funding,” she said. At the moment, her income as a photographer helps pay for the girls’ uniforms, books, honoraria for guest speakers and other out-of-pocket expenses.
Girls of Honor has helped hundreds of girls, providing them with weekly guidance and support, but it also helps another girl not included in that statistic–Virgile herself. “I was also able to heal from the little girl who had the trauma happen to her.”
If someone had cared for her the way she does for the girls in her mentorship program, Virgile’s life would’ve been far different. What the girls really need, Virgile said, is knowing “that there are people out here who really care for them,” Virgile said.
Girls of Honor is accepting donations on GoFundMe.
