Members of The Girls’ Network

The Girls’ Network

A mentoring charity, which aims to raise the aspirations of girls from the least advantaged communities, is rapidly growing in East Sussex. The Girls’ Network aims to inspire and empower girls aged 14 to 19 to be ambitious and reach their potential by matching them with a professional female mentor. The Girls’ Network Manager for Sussex and South London, Toni Goodall, writes. 

The programme, which has supported over 1000 girls nationwide, sees pairs meet for a minimum of one hour a month for a 12 month period.

Set up in 2012, The Girls’ Network was established by two former school teachers, Becca Dean and Charly Young, who recognised a serious need to build girls’ expectations of themselves and their future.

Ms Young said: “This offers such a huge opportunity to change the lives of thousands of girls…who desperately need support to realise their potential. We urgently need mentors across a wide range of careers to help make this dream a reality.”

The charity has proven to have a huge impact on the girls; 100% of girls mentored in 2015 demonstrated moderate to very high levels of resilience by the end of the programme – and 67% identified themselves as being more confident in talking about what they were good at. In the Hastings region, we have supported over 40 girls to date and by January even more will have access to our services.

One mentee described her positive experience with The Girls’ Network as follows: “I learned more about what I want to do. The Girls’ Network has actually opened doors for me to understand what it would be like to see my future career”.

The Girls’ Network is urging schools, businesses and individuals to sign up to the mentoring programme. Mentors will be given thorough training and DBS checks before commencing. Find out more at The Girls Network.

Follow: @thegirlsnet

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thegirlsnetwork

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