Spilling the Tea is a social emotional learning primarily school-based program that gives 5th to 8th grade girls a safe, small group space to talk through real life topics, build confidence, and practice essential life and durable skills. Girls are supported by the same mentor throughout the program, building trust over time, and each session builds on the last, deepening skill over 12 to 14 sessions, that occur everry other week that close with a graduation celebration.

​

Sessions blend discussion, art, and real world skills rather than separate subjects. Girls learn to explain ideas in their own words and back up their thinking with evidence, skills that carry into the classroom and beyond. The approach draws on Dr. Monique Morris's research showing that healing and joy must come before learning, and Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw's concept of intersectionality, the idea that race and gender together shape Black girls' experiences in ways neither can explain alone. Every session is built to be a space where girls feel safe, seen, and affirmed first.

 

Skills Obtained: 

• Self-awareness 

• Self-management 

• Social awareness and empathy 

• Relationship skills 

​

How the Curriculum Connects

​

Each session weaves reading, writing, art, and social emotional learning around one shared theme instead of teaching them separately. A self-awareness session might pair a picture book with guided discussion, a vocabulary word, and an art activity like a self-portrait, all building toward the same skill. The same texts, aligned to NC literacy standards, double as the entry point for SEL work, so girls build reading and vocabulary skills while processing real feelings. Life skills like goal setting and communication are woven into these same conversations rather than taught separately.