BEP Youth Programs
Our Program
Body Empowerment Project’s Youth Programs offer prevention-focused mental health support to middle and high school students through three components: the Flagship Program, BEP Mini-Series, and BEP Pop-Ups.
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Our Flagship Program is a 10-week, evidence-based, after-school intervention designed for Philadelphia middle and high school students. Created in collaboration with pediatric eating disorder specialists, the program fosters protective factors like self-esteem, self-compassion, and building community, while addressing risk factors such as body image dissatisfaction, weight stigma, and thin ideal internalization. Each 60-minute workshop includes student-led discussions, informational videos, individual reflections, and team-based activities. Topics include body image, consent and boundaries, social media pressures, and navigating cultural beauty standards.
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Workshops are led by near-peer mentors (ages 18–25) who share lived experiences with participants, helping to create a safe, culturally affirming space. The curriculum has been extensively validated, and participants show significant decreases in eating disorder symptoms and increases in body appreciation.
BEP Mini-Series offer shorter, themed versions of the program, and BEP Pop-Ups are school-wide events that spark dialogue about body image and mental health.
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Programs are offered on a sliding scale, with most sites paying nothing thanks to the generous support of our partners.
Click here to refer your school for our program!
Our Participants
Our program is offered to middle and high school students, from 5th-12th grade, in schools and community sites. In line with our mission of inclusivity, our program is open to students of all genders, races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and religions. Our participants’ unique perspectives help us celebrate each individual’s heritage and diverse background to recognize that all bodies are good bodies.
Our Facilitators
The middle and high school program workshops are led by 18-25 year olds many of whom are undergraduate student volunteers from the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University, and Temple University in line with our near peer-mentorship model.
Facilitators are extensively trained to administer our curriculum. They additionally undergo a DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) training including topics such as student sensitivity and safety. All of our volunteer facilitators must acquire all the necessary clearances and background checks required to work with minors in the School District of Philadelphia.
Interested in serving as a facilitator? Click here.
Our Partnering Sites
Mastery Charter Shoemaker Campus | William L. Sayre High School | West Philadelphia High School | Paul Robeson High School | Girard Academic Music Program | High School for Creative and Performing Arts | Kensington Health Sciences Academy | Puentes de Salud | Building 21 | Project Home | JS Jenks School | SLA SLAMS |
