How we ‘Empower’ young women

In 2019, we received funding from the Community Service Directorate (CSD) to run a program aimed at women’s safety. The plan was to run through a Canberra school and provide support for young mothers. Unfortunately, we were weeks away from launching when the first lockdown of 2020 hit and the program had to be cancelled.

However, CSD allowed us to adapt our program to fit Covid-19 restrictions. Our talented staff went back to the drawing board to design a program that could be run safely. That is how the Empower Program was born!

The Empower Program was open to young women between 16-20 years old. The programs’ aim was to support young women to build self-confidence, to identify their strengths, create resilience, and learn about having safe and fulfilling connections with others in a supported and creative environment. It was designed with the help of an art therapist, community worker, and disability support worker. Topics included confidence and self-belief, self-compassion, and relationships (communication, boundaries, and consent).  

The program ran over November 2020 and was incredibly successful. The young women completed surveys before and after the program. They answered questions on their confidence, self-esteem, self-compassion, and skills in relationships such as using boundaries and consent. There was an average of a 20% increase in these skills after the completion of the course. This is a significant achievement over six weeks. All the feedback received from attendees and their guardians was positive and there was also a high completion rate.

Community funding through things like the Women’s Safety Grant enable us to make a difference in people’s lives. Despite the difficulty with Covid-19 forcing us to re-design our entire program, we were still able to use the funds provided appropriately. Through engaging activities, we were able to support the girls to have difficult conversations. We discussed what holding boundaries would look like with family, friends, colleagues, and partners. Having these conversations now means that the attendees could take those lessons into future relationships. The effect of these programs is significant, not just for what it does in the short term, but for the difference it makes in the long term.

Visit here programs to find out more about our programs or get in contact.