At Girls Out Loud we believe girls are under represented in senior management roles across all sectors and know that if we are to effect change any time soon, along with organisational shifts we need to inspire and motivate the next generation to pick up the baton.
It may surprise you to know that not all girls have aspirations. Even after 100 years of liberation and continued campaigning for equality, not all girls want careers or even believe they are capable of making this happen; not all girls think it is possible to have a career and a family and very few girls know the extent of opportunities out there waiting for them to put their hand up and say YES!
It is our job to educate, inform and inspire them to step up, believe in themselves and walk tall with confidence, self-respect and purpose.
ARE YOU IN?
Fundamental to making this a reality and ensuring the talent pipeline does not dry up is harnessing the stories and achievements of the thousands of top female role models out there, making their way in the corporate/business world. They can help unlock the potential in our young, as real stories matter and have the power to shift limiting beliefs and expand social mobility way beyond expectations.
At Girls Out Loud all our programmes harness the power of real role models and we are constantly looking for ways to engage the corporate sector in our mission, a mission that is as important to us all – raising the aspirations of the next generation. What could be more important to the continued prosperity of our economy?
Our school events, Role Model Relay and Big Sister programmes are perfect opportunities for corporate partnerships in terms of nominating volunteers and sponsoring female employees to step up to become mentors.
We contract with a school and work with them to select 20 girls (Little Sisters) who would most benefit from our programme and have the widest impact on the year, then we recruit, select and train 20 Big Sisters from a diverse network including the public sector, entrepreneurs and corporate professionals and then the Big and Little Sisters work together as one team supporting each other over the coming year.
The Big Sisters meet their Little Sisters for a 1-2-1 every 3/4 weeks for an hour in school time, on school premises (some Big Sisters do a lot more than this) and are also expected to support their Little Sister by participating in a launch and graduation events, alongside 3 other workshops run over the year including subjects as diverse as mindfulness, social media savvy, relationships, choices and consequences, creative goal setting,. We also organise an educational trip off school premises at some point in the year too.
Whilst we accept sometimes it is not possible for busy women to attend ALL of these workshops but the launch and graduation ceremonies are key and nonattendance at these events is hard for the girls.
The mentoring sessions are informal and at no time will Big Sisters be left alone with their mentees. We employ a Project Manager who will be on school premises managing all aspects of the programme and supporting all our Big Sisters throughout the year.
The Big Sister programmes is a professionally structured and professionally managed intervention run by trained coaches and our Founder Jane Kenyon who has over 25 years’ experience working with women and teen girls.
It is a journey of self-discovery for both the girls and the women. From our research and observation the women who embrace the Big Sister mentoring role also report major shifts in their mind-set and a whole host of benefits. This is more than just the feel good factor of giving back. Mentoring a 12/14 year old girl and helping her find her voice, ask more, be more visible, more confident and resilient and perform better has obvious knock on effects.
The impact on personal effectiveness is clear. Big Sisters note improvements in….
It is almost impossible to inspire and help a young girl find her voice and become more visible without first embracing this personally.
We believe if you can mentor a vulnerable, 12-14 year old girl, you can transfer this skill to a wide range of scenarios and mentoring is such a pivotal skill in the world of work these days.
Not only will you be a proficient mentor at the end of the year but you will also have had a perfect opportunity to self-reflect, work on your own visibility and personal brand and nurture connections with some amazing women, your fellow Big Sisters. We attract some awesome women to our work and this serves as the perfect peer group for personal development.
“Big Sister is a valuable programme which has a real and lasting impact for all involved. Not only do Big Sisters get to know their Little Sisters as individuals, their strengths, drivers and ambitions but they learn about themselves as well. Many of the issues which we face as women such as limited self-belief, confidence and self-image are shared, irrespective of age. The skills you learn as a Big Sister enable you to not only support these young women but also ensure that you come back to your own business and actively work on those topics with a clear focus and ambition to instil change. Big Sister delivers a multiplier effect with mentors coming back into their organisations and affecting impact on many women in their own teams and businesses. It galvanises and encourages greater imperative to spot and support talent to ensure women progress across your business. I am incredibly proud to be involved with Girls Out Loud, have personally benefitted from all of my experiences and would recommend getting involved to all.”
Jo Whitfield, CEO Coop Food
To find more click here BIG SISTER and to apply for a place on the next programme in your area click here
To talk to Jane about supporting this programme via your CSR programme or inviting Jane to talk to your internal gender and/or diversity & inclusion networks about supporting our work please contact Jane direct on jane@girlsoutloud.org.uk
To nominate a member of your organisation to participate in the programme is £1,250. This contributes to the overall cost of the programme including mentor training, school liaison and management, event planning, resources, peer mentoring, project management and implementing safe guarding policies, all absolutely fundamental when working with children.
As we are a not for profit organisation, all our income is directed to the community we are here to serve – teenage girls. we also have a charitable Foundation run for us by Forever Manchester. Find out more here GIRLS OUT LOUD FOUNDATION
To date we have a sound posse of awesome companies supporting our work in the North West and a cool bunch of brands creating partnerships with us to fund our work including Coach, Quay, BeautyBay, Always, NeverFullyDressed and Nuddy to name a few and here are some Big Sisters talking about their journey.
To enquire about working with us and supporting our work please contact our Founder Jane@girlsoutloud.org.uk for an initial chat and if you are in any doubt as to why we need to invest in our young girls now, read Jane’s latest book DIVA WISDOM – FIND YOUR VOICE, ROCK YOUR WORLD AND PASS IT ON discussing amongst other topics, quotas, misogyny, the state of feminism and equality, role models, female entrepreneurship and the teen girl crisis we are in the midst of today.
You can purchase Diva Wisdom on Amazon – click here to purchase.
20% of all profits going to the Girls Out Loud Foundation.
We are looking for Big Sisters to join our team in Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Merseyside & Lancashire!
Find out more on our Big Sister page or click here to fill in the volunteer form.
BE BOLD, BE BRAVE, BE BEAUTIFUL, BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY BE YOU. BECAUSE YOU, ARE ALREADY ENOUGH AND ABSOLUTELY PERFECT, JUST THE WAY YOU ARE.
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