Girls Standing Up is an innovative youth-led project to tackle violence against women and girls (VAWG). The Project adopts a youth-led approach and aims to remind all the young women involved of the strength and potential they hold as young women in society today and to reclaim their voices as women within their local community. Throughout the entirety of the summer break, Staff at Bright Futures have facilitated ‘Girls Standing Up’ workshops; delivering educational sessions covering topics such as consent, healthy relationships, street harassment, online harassment, and female empowerment. Within said workshops, various guest speakers were in attendance to further support the education work being delivered. Guests in attendance included Northumbria Police, PCSOs, self-defence instructors, sexual health nurses and PCC Kim McGuiness.

Hannah Woodward, Youth Work Apprentice at Bright Futures stated “Over fifty young people have participated with Girls Standing Up so far and the project continues to flourish. We’re now hoping to increase awareness of the project on a local level involving a multitude of different schools, colleges, and partner agencies. The young people involved are hard at work planning various projects to create further awareness and increase education surrounding this issue.”

Quote from Girls Standing Up Mentor Beth – “I’ve really enjoyed it, we’ve had lots of fun including crafts and meeting guest speakers it’s also been great to be able to bring my daughter along, as, after all, she is the future generation! I can’t wait to teach her what it means to be powerful and strong.”

Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner, Kim McGuinness, said: “Women’s safety, happiness and opportunity – it’s all very much in the spotlight at the moment and this is because there is so much more that needs to be done to support and protect our young girls. Bright Futures is already doing all this and is paving the way for others. It’s a charity with so much to offer the community – a real asset to women growing up in South Shields. It’s been a pleasure to meet the girls involved in this project and hear more about the issues that matter to them as well as their hopes and goal”