Proud Youth Volunteer Champions Positive Change Through UK Youth’s EmpowHER Programme

UK Youth’s EmpowHER programme provides young women and girls with opportunities to make change in their communities. 

In 2021, London 2012 Olympics legacy funder Spirit of 2012 awarded a further grant of £500,000 to UK Youth for the EmpowHER Legacy programme. Through this, UK Youth tested different approaches to youth social action projects, exploring how to make them sustainable and embed best practice into a bigger network of schemes. 

Norwich-based New Routes Integration is one of the delivery partners. The charity supports refugees, asylum seekers and isolated migrants, promoting cross-cultural integration and community awareness.  

Former New Routes Integration youth project co-ordinator Sadhia Islam talks about her experience of EmpowHER Legacy…  

“My pursuit in the empowerment of young girls started during my undergraduate degree, where I focused on how education empowers young girls in Bangladesh, where I originate from,” writes Sadhia.  

“The code of silence is arguably the most significant factor in maintaining a woman’s status in Bangladesh, which is dominated by a man.  

“The gender violence women experienced during the Bangladesh Liberation War pressured them into silence as a form of protection for their reputation. Ultimately, the war affected young girls’ participation in education and, consequently, the struggle to develop socio-economic status.  

“Through many conversations, I found this to be similar in other countries. I became curious of the social factors which influence young girls in their education and the barriers to opportunities.   

“I began my personal EmpowHER journey as a youth volunteer then started conducting research for my master’s degree at Cambridge University.  

“The research follows the voices of 12 young people, looking at the impact of youth work intervention on empowering young refugees, asylum-seekers and isolated migrant girls aged 10-15. It focuses on how the young girls perceived and embraced the definition of empowerment. The research revealed a great awareness of societal issues, but a struggle in balancing cultural identity.  

“Through the project, the young women and girls were able to express the significant impact that youth work intervention has had on their confidence. This also allowed them to make suggestions for improvement both with their youth organisation and school. 

“Taking the learnings from EmpowHER Legacy, I have been able to design a training programme to support teachers in empowering young people of refugee, asylum-seeking and isolated migrant backgrounds in schools.    

“Towards the end of the research, I was appointed the youth project coordinator at New Routes Integration. I did not expect to go into youth work after completing my teacher training, but have no regrets.  

“EmpowHER was instrumental in my development as a youth volunteer and eventually, my role as youth project coordinator. It has been an amazing project and voice platform for young girls who otherwise would be isolated and limited to such opportunities. I believe this is because parents/guardians feel reassured of the safe space we have created and noticed the young girls’ enjoyment with engaging in the programme and their growth in confidence in expressing their own cultural identity.  

“I am so incredibly proud of what our group has achieved since the start of the programme. To watch their confidence flourish has been a privilege.” 

It has been an amazing project and voice platform for young girls who otherwise would be isolated and limited to such opportunities

Sadhia Islam

EmpowHER, which is match-funded by the #iwill Fund, started in 2018 to help young women and girls lead change in their communities and build wellbeing through social action opportunities. The programme was funded by Spirit of 2012 and the #iwill Fund and led by UK Youth in partnership with the British Red Cross and Young Women’s Trust.  

EmpowHER supported more than 1,800 young women and girls to give back and lead change in their local communities. Launched to mark the centenary of women’s suffrage in the UK, the programme encouraged young women and girls to use their voices for positive change – just as their predecessors did 100 years ago. 

UK Youth is a leading charity with a vision that all young people are equipped to thrive and empowered to contribute at every stage of their lives. UK Youth reaches more than four million young people across the UK and is focused on unlocking youth work as a catalyst for change. To find out more, visit ukyouth.org  

UK Youth is involved in a range of programmes designed to help young people thrive, such as outdoor learning, physical literacy, social action and employability, including Hatch, a youth employability programme run in partnership with KFC. For more on UK Youth’s programmes, see ukyouth.org/what-we-do/programmes 

How can we keep it going?

For youth organisations interested in delivering EmpowHER, loads of resources are available via the EmpowHER Toolkiton the UK Youth website.

Read a little more about the EmpowHER Legacy programme and our recommendations for scaling and embedding youth social action in the summary report. Or, if you’re a real keen bean, you can find the full report here.

With additional funding, UK Youth would deliver the EmpowHER model at greater scale, to give more young women and girls+ the chance to lead youth social action in their communities and build a society that works for them. 

Watch this space for more blogs about what we’ve learned through EmpowHER and our wider youth social action programming.