Young Leaders Project

This summer we launched our first Young Leaders Project. The programme aims to provide young people with opportunities to gain experience in a professional work setting; enrich their CV and interview skills; and build their communication and leadership skills.

The programme this summer included: a practice interview; an induction to BCWA, the support sector and professional workplace, including safeguarding awareness training, and “understanding the workplace” workshop; and a team project organising and running a programme of activities at our refuges.

Here’s some of the activities that they ran over the two weeks:

Here’s a quote from our Project Officer Beth Guille who described how it went:

“You have all grown in confidence, we definitely had lots of different experiences and learned a lot as we went. From event planning and prepping (Summer Ball), to organising activities for children and adults and then running those activities for the women at the Modern Slavery Refuge, to visiting Community Leaders and learning about their career journeys, to researching and mapping local resources – and everything in between! Thank you – you would all be welcome back at BCWA anytime.”

 

Here’s a quote from our refuge about one of our male young leaders, Cameron:

“(He’s) helpful and puts himself forward to offer support when needed. He provided the children with a positive male role model – younger boys have warmed to him already.”

This was incredibly heartwarming to hear as we know that a lot of these children don’t have many positive male role models. We were extremely proud to hear about the positive effect of all of our Young Leaders, it was brilliant to see you all grow over the weeks.

Meeting Community Leaders

We also connected young people with local inspirational women so they could hear more about what it’s like to work in the interpersonal violence sector. A huge thank you to Nikki Penniston from the Violence Reduction Project and Laura Rogers and the team from the Safeguarding Team at West Midlands Police! Thank you for taking the time to inspire our young leaders about their career futures.