This month, young men and women from across our charity met up in a cosy recording studio in Tooting-Beck to discuss women’s safety and the situations that young women from our programmes have experienced.
All of the young people were made to feel safe and were able to openly share their thoughts and opinions around personal experiences and public events where women have been made to feel unsafe. The young people also discussed where they thought changes could be made within our communities so that young people felt safer everywhere.
Interestingly, conversation also explored the impact that heritage and culture has on women’s safety. Many young people discussed how their own upbringing has encouraged them to adopt certain behaviours and attitudes to women’s safety, and it was eye-opening for the young people and our Coach Mentors alike to hear how everyone had adopted particular attitudes to women’s safety.
One young woman who took part in the recording shared: “I’ve never had an opportunity to do something like this before, but I enjoy talking about things like this and as a young woman I feel I had a lot to share with everyone.”
Dean is one of our Coach Mentor’s and sat in on the conversation as a mediator. Dean shared: “At first I could tell that the young people were a bit shy and reserved, but after a while conversation was flowing and everyone was able to relax and share some really interesting opinions and experiences.”
The recording session was hosted in partnership with our Creative Partners OurSecretLab, as part of a wider vision that will see parts of the recording become the audio for an animated women’s safety video. This animation is set to be released in the coming weeks, so make sure you keep an eye out for any updates! The discussion recording will also become a feature episode on our new podcast series that is set to launch later this spring.
Our charity understands the importance of giving young people a bigger platform to elevate their voices. We look forward to working together with more young people from across our programmes to create more opportunities that allow our young people to have their voices heard!
