Spirit of 2012 has awarded an additional £300,000 to UK Youth to extend delivery of their EmpowHER programme to the end of October 2021.   

EmpowHER was funded to mark the centenary of women’s suffrage to help young women and girls lead change in their communities, increase their self-esteem and build wellbeing by providing inclusive and meaningful social action opportunities. To date, UK Youth to date have reached more than 800 girls across England working in partnership with the British Red Cross and Young Woman’s Trust.

This funding will build on existing successful work across the North West, West Midlands and South West alongside a new region in the East of England.  Spirit are delighted to have jointly funded this extension with the #iwill Fund who also awarded £300,000. This brings Spirit’s total investment in EmpowHER to £1.3m, with £1 for £1 match with the #iwill fund.

Working with their network of youth organisations, partners deliver weekly face-to-face activity sessions focusing on themes of individuals’ rights, empowerment and resilience as well as activities exploring inspirational women in history.  Through their partnership with the British Red Cross, girls have been inspired to encourage community integration, tackle loneliness and isolation and campaign for change and people’s rights through their Power of Kindness campaign.  The Young Women’s Trust offer inspiring and inclusive opportunities for girls to learn what empowers them to lead change beyond the programme.

Ruth Hollis, Chief Executive of Spirit of 2012 said, “We are delighted to be awarding this additional grant to UK Youth to extend the reach and impact of EmpowHER.  We know it has already had a marked impact on the wellbeing and sense of purpose of girls and young women and we’re delighted that our investment will help to extend this even further to create real, sustained change for more than 2,000 girls. We will continue to work with UK Youth and partners to explore and share the best practice the project is generating and build sustainability into the programme.

The scale of this programme and collective learning to support young people to access high quality social action opportunities could not have been possible without funding from the #iwill Fund.  We are pleased to receive this further commitment of £300,000 to match Spirit’s investment towards EmpowHER.”

 

Further information:

For more information about the first phase of the EmpowHER programme click here.