Thanks to a grant of £8,700 awarded in July 2020 from the Wesleyan Foundation, Empower-U’s SheWins Project is working with 90 girls ages 12 – 16 providing a range of varied sessions from sports and cookery to self-development and beauty!
It’s a cold Saturday morning, the first after the second national lockdown. Tucked away on an estate in Coventry, Empowr-U CIC is working hard to engage young girls in a deprived area.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions their usual centre is closed but Chloe Fisher, Community Sports Coach at Empowr-U, was determined to restart the sessions:
“We’re usually inside the Rose Centre but to get things running again we’re going to have the sessions outside for now.
“Spon End is a really deprived area, there used to be so many things going on around here that have just been cut. Spon End in particular has such a lack in female attendants compared to other places.”
Today’s session is a messy one! Working with a large plastic sheet, some A3 pages and an armoury of paint filled balloons it’s carnage:
“Today’s a little bit of an improv session because doing arts and crafts outside can be limiting of what you’re allowed to do.
“SheWins is basically about female empowerment as a lot of sessions like this are male dominated. It’s about giving the girls that extra opportunity. These sessions allow them to get to know us, they’ll feel more comfortable and come to the other sessions we run. It’s just about giving them that extra bit of confidence.”
Amongst the paint splattering we spoke to twins Molly and Megan who, after attending similar sessions with Empowr-U, are now supporting other young people:
“We did a Sport Leader course at the beginning of the year and that lead us onto helping with youth sessions. We get to build new skills and we get to work with the younger people. When I’m older I want to be a youth worker too and this will help me to achieve that. I didn’t know what I wanted to do but now I do.
“It stops us hanging out on the streets and we can help other kids stay off the streets and out of trouble.”
Chloe added:
“The group is just fantastic. I love seeing how much they appreciate and enjoy it. I get a warm and fuzzy feeling out of it.”
If you’d like to apply for a grant from the Wesleyan Foundation, click here.