Motivating Young Women to Lead

The YWCA Leadership Program is a unique mentoring program for young girls who show potential as leaders but are unlikely to achieve this without intervention due to socio-economic status, unsupportive adults in their lives, or the perception that they are somehow ‘different’.  The program culminates in a student directed community service event to showcase and practice new leadership skills and involvement with the program.  A combination of coaching and mentoring is used to motivate, guide and support students to believe in themselves, develop leadership and related skills, and discover their potential. 

The program structure is a series of five weekly meetings where mentors participate as positive role models and table facilitators.  The leadership workshops conclude with a community service event chosen and organised by the participants that further define and building on the skills and concepts explored over the whole program. The aims of the program are to help young women turn feelings of hopelessness and despair into feelings of control and self-confidence, and to increase knowledge of opportunities open to them.