21 girls aged 10-16 years old from across Greater Manchester attended the second UniteHER on the 17th June 2023 at Bridgehall Primary School in Stockport, supported by Greater Manchester’s Violence Reduction Unit, England Netball and Active Communities Experiences.

Designed to build relationships and trust with services, the girls were joined by professionals including youth workers, paramedics, community support officers, North West Army Major, teachers and probation officers to name just a few.

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. This session included fantastic insight from Major Jen Henry who talked about her role in the Army as a Major and as a woman and mother.

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.

At the end of the event, UniteHER was fortunate enough to welcome professional netball player Ella Bowen, who currently plays for Manchester Thunder and is an England Roses Pathway Player. Ella provided an inspiring Q&A, opening up about her previous injuries that required her to be even more determined to focus on her dream. Ella also presented the awards and certificates from the day, with signed netballs and goodie bags for the participants. 

The girls were asked to share their thoughts on the day at the end of the sessions. Improvement in confidence in talking to professionals was increased from an average of 6.6 out of 10 to 8.3.

Feedback from the girls who attended included: 

“I enjoyed the ToughCookies session about sexual harassment- finally someone who has confidence to share views and opinions. I can relate to a lot of the discussions.” 

“It was great to meet so many fantastic women.”

 A huge thank you to all those involved in making the event be a success and special thanks to Nibble NQ for donating amazing baked treats for the event and Gilbert Netball for providing free netballs and keyrings for the girls.

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_.

If you missed last year’s UniteHER, you can read more about it here: https://gmvru.co.uk/uniteher-builds-relationships-between-girls-and-professionals-from-across-greater-manchester/

Article posted on: 18/07/2023 10:07am