championing young women in schools
Two years ago St James’s Place Charitable Foundation engaged the Trust to deliver programmes specifically focussing on young women. Since then, 181 female students from schools across the country have received transformational mentoring from our sporting champions thanks to the funding. As we move into the third year of the funding partnership we reflect on the impact the programmes have had on both the young women participating and in their wider school and local communities.
At a time when young women’s current happiness as well as their confidence in the future has dropped according to the Prince’s Trust Youth Index, it is more important than ever to offer a programme and a space for girls to work together and discuss issues relevant to them in a safe and comfortable environment. Research shows that women and young girls have been hit harder by the effects of covid, with a quarter saying they don’t think they will ever recover from the emotional impact of the pandemic and half of young women agreeing the pandemic has made their mental health worse, compared to 41 per cent of young men. * Coupled with this, the participants themselves also highlighted pressure from social media, body / image confidence and their own mental health and wellbeing as being real challenges they face in their daily lives.
“Spending time with my mentor and hearing about the challenges she’s faced and how she’s overcome them. It’s inspired me to do the best I can in everything I do.””
“Being able to talk about my problems which has helped me deal with them better and feel more positive about things.”
With all this as a clear focus, our programmes sought to improve the girls’ health and wellbeing, challenge gender stereotypes, and improve their resilience and ability to deal with set backs and recover from difficulties 12 programmes have been delivered throughout 2021 and 2022 in schools and it was fantastic to see the results and the huge positive impact they are having. Wellbeing improved by an average of 11% across the participants, with confidence up 7%, self-esteem up 11% and resilience rising by 14%.
Teachers at the schools put in context what this increase in confidence means in real terms:
“It’s only been five weeks but the change in Sally has been amazing. The biggest change I’ve seen in Sally is her ability to take the lead and have the confidence to know that the plan she’s put together is good and step forward and take the lead in delivering it. She is going to go far.”
Nikki Gore, teacher at Prenton High School, where we chatted with participant, Sally
On the impact of working with world class athletes as mentors she noted:
“Sports people are unique. They are so motivational. We have business people coming in to the school and they don’t grab the attention like a sportsperson does. They’ve had to work hard, they’ve had to train, dedicate themselves and they’ve had to dig in deep. And the students can see that and can’t help to be inspired by that. Having the female role model is so important for our school. They see them and go ‘wow we can do that.’”
A teacher at another school commented about the progress their students had made:
“There were huge improvements in confidence and resilience. Students were using problem solving skills and team work to overcome problems. At the start they would have possibly given up. It inspired students that females can do anything they want to .”
Encouraging students to step out of their comfort zones and run projects that make a difference in their local community is a big part of developing confidence and wellbeing. Our athlete mentors encourage the students to take ownership of these projects and they can see for themselves the difference and positive impact they have made.
Bromsgrove High School in Birmingham raised money and created awareness of a local charity called Basement Project who support young people who are homeless or facing homelessness. The group of young women and girls at King Edwards School in Sheffield were really animated when discussing what healthy relationships looked like. This led to them talking about their own experiences and other issues young women and girls face, the attitudes of boys in their school and some of the things they had said. They created a video to encourage group discussion around this important topic which has been used in the school to encourage group discussion.
“The young people’s confidence and self-esteem really grew. Coming together as a group they started to feel a real sense of belonging. I also saw how much they grew up mentally over the 12 weeks. Teachers and students both commented that their attendance had improved, too.”
Hannah Beharry, Former England and Great Britain Boxer
These programmes have allowed these groups of young women to work more closely with their peers and offered a safe space to discuss issues and concerns in more depth. For the 181 young women who attended this programme funded by St James Place Charitable Foundation, they have been given a unique opportunity to become the best version of themselves, learn from a powerful sporting role model and look forward to a bright future.
* Prince’s Trust Youth Index