Young Women’s Trust has been granted £255,250 from Comic Relief’s Power Up funding programme to build a national movement of 1,000 young female activists. The programme aims to support a wide range of women’s rights organisations to fight against systems that perpetuate the injustices they encounter in their daily lives.
The charity, which supports young women on low or no pay, will use the grant to expand its support of young women to speak out on the issues they face, through training, campaigns and research. It will help these young women to connect and campaign for equality in the workplace and beyond. The project will be co-created with young women and elements of it will be peer-led.
Young women are at the centre of everything the charity does, contributing their experiences and advising on the issues that need highlighting. Its pioneering participation programme last year involved 286 young women in campaigning and media activities, including meeting with secretary of state Andrea Leadsom and meeting MPs to ask them to support equal wages for all ages. The transformational grant from Comic Relief will enable the charity to expand this vital programme to engage 1,000 young women in the next 3 years.
Young Women’s Trust Participation Manager Lydia Morgan said:
“We could not be more excited to be given this opportunity to build a national movement of young women fighting for equality at work. This grant will enable Young Women’s Trust to engage a thousand young women and ensure that they are heard. It is only through listening to young women, and giving them the space and support they need to speak out, that equality for young women will be achieved.”
Mattea, 24 from the Wirral and a member of the Young Women’s Trust Advisory Panel said of the grant:
“I have gained so much with Young Women’s Trust, from learning life-long skills such as public speaking and the confidence to utilise it to finding a supportive community of like-minded women who have truly helped me blossom. Any time I campaign and share my experiences through Young Women’s Trust I come out stronger and ready to put my new skills to the test when in work or other volunteer roles.
“No change will be made while we stay quiet on the negative effects of low pay, or the damaging domino-effect of living on no-pay. We need to speak up on the reality of this if we ever hope for this to change for us and the next generation. After all, the people who make these rules don’t live in our situations or understand the struggle of living with these financial limitations.”
