UniteHER is a female led event, designed to build relationships and trust between girls aged 10-16 years old and professionals including youth workers, paramedics, community support officers, North West Army Major, teachers and probation officers – to name just a few.

Partnering with the Greater Manchester Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) and England Netball, the annual event aims to improve communication and relationships via team sports and workshops.

This year, the day started with a netball session hosted by England Netball, where the girls (and professionals) developed skills in passing accuracy and agility whilst having to work together in teams to achieve the tasks. Following this there was a Q&A where the girls could ask professionals questions about their roles.

In the afternoon, the girls attended two workshops, the first from national charity StreetDoctors on emergency first-aid provision and empowering young people to become part of the solution to violence. The second from ToughCookies – a Greater Manchester organisation that aims to support teens to live happy and healthy lives through open and honest relationship advice, information, and education – on healthy relationships and sexual harassment.

Abbey Barry, Greater Manchester Netball Development Officer, England Netball, said: “UniteHER was an all-round empowering day. It aimed to educate young females on a range of topics with the overall theme of reducing violence. The sessions delivered by both Street Doctors and Tough Cookies, were tailored to the specific age group and the attendees were able to have open and honest conversations in a safe environment.”

The team hope to organise future UniteHER events to continue to break down barriers between young girls and young professionals, inspire young women and provide violence reduction centred education. If you are interested in being involved, email Rhianna (founder of UniteHER) at uniteher@outlook.com or get in touch via the UniteHER Instagram page @uniteher_.

You can find out more about this years event here: https://gmvru.co.uk/the-second-uniteher-event-raises-aspirations-of-young-women-and-creates-relationships-between-girls-and-professionals-from-across-greater-manchester/

Find out more about the first-ever UniteHER event here: https://gmvru.co.uk/uniteher-builds-relationships-between-girls-and-professionals-from-across-greater-manchester/