With the focus on developing leadership among the young people of the YCW and IMPACT! Groups, we have been supporting a fantastic initiative from Preston IMPACT!.
The project called “EpowHER”, which was set up by UKYouth and is supported by the British Red Cross, aims to inspire young women and girls lead change in their community. The programme also plans to address low levels of well-being amongst young women and girls in the UK by empowering them to have a voice, be heard and give back to their local community.
So far, the Group has organised activities around International Women’s Day, ran workshops on important issues like mental health and body image and taken time to review their work ahead of another phase of the project.
More recently, the Group held a residential at Castlerigg Manor in the Lake District, in order to enjoy some time together, run workshops and reflect on their own realities. The retreat was led by the young people and supported by their YCW Adult Companion Terry Mattinson and his assistant Maria. This gave them an opportunity to discuss the issues that they wanted to focus on within the wider topic of empowering women.
YCW National Training and Development Worker, Marc Besford, joined the Group for one of the days and heard about the plans they have for the future. He said: “We have some amazing initiatives coming out of this project and a real growth of leadership amongst the young women and girls. I hope they can continue to build on some of their earlier work and keep empowering more women and girls.”
