What does it mean to be a girl or young women today? What is important to each of us individually? What shapes our identity? What do we value? What influences us in our friendships and relationships? And what helps bring us all together?
These are the types of questions that shape girls’ group, a space where we come together to talk, share and explore potential answers to questions both big and (seemingly) small.
Just a few hours a week together, help to build a safe community, where girls and young women, can turn down the outside noise and look into the things that support our wellbeing. As a Youth Worker I cultivate and facilitate the group but the peer learning is equally valuable, getting advice and recommendations from each other is what makes it a really special group.
Before joining Mary’s Youth Club as a Youth Worker and becoming part of the SIS Project, I never thought I would be doing dedicated girls’ work. As a teenager, I was always questioning the societal norms about being a woman. I was never a big fan of make up or fashion. I don’t wear dresses or skirts (even my wedding ‘dress’ was a jumpsuit).
However, I’ve always been interested in feminism and delved into it a lot during my undergrad. Stepping into girls’ work became a revelation about the different ways in which girlhood and femininity may be understood and lived and how crucial it is to all women and girls to have the freedom to choose the extent to which they want (or don’t want) to conform to societal expectations. There is gender itself (that often provides many shared lived experiences) but add in intersectionality of, ethnicity, religion, nationality or cultural heritage, sexual orientation, class, age, social group or subcultures aligned with. And then, there are complicated nuanced experiences happening for every girl in the room.
“Inclusivity is a significant aspect of Mary’s Youth Club’s impact. 58% of our members identify as female, and we place great importance on providing a safe and supportive space for young women to thrive. “
This percentage may not seem significant; however, open-access youth clubs are typically attended by a much higher proportion of males. We understand the unique challenges young women face in our society and actively support their personal and social development. By promoting gender equality and empowerment, we contribute to building a more equitable and inclusive community now and in the future.
I started girls’ work at Mary’s through the SIS Project. Although it is sadly coming to an end soon, it has offered us resources, structure, and the freedom to shape support in ways that genuinely meet girls’ needs. Through SIS, we were able to look at how we can support girls via 121 mentoring as well as a fast referral on the therapeutic pathway alongside our regular weekly girls group sessions. There’s also the Islington Girls’ Supergroup, a longstanding collaboration where girls from Prospex, Mildmay, and Highbury Roundhouse (all partner youth clubs) come together to celebrate different occasions, build connections, and explore topics that cut across borough boundaries. Some of the recent highlights were a super inspirational session at Prospex with women in many different jobs, a chill, board games night at Mary’s, a pizza party at Mildmay, and an ice-skating trip to Somerset House.
Our involvement in London Youth’s Good for Girls programme has also been a key strand in how we’ve grown. We were there for the pilot, and now we are running the programme for the third time, with each round giving us room to try something new. The second time we ran the project we partnered with EGA Secondary School. This year, we’re trialling a fresh format based at Mary’s itself, welcoming younger girls into the group and building in more intentional, embedded peer mentoring and a talking circle format around their wellbeing. Every iteration has opened a new window into what girls’ work can be, and how it can keep evolving alongside the girls who help shape it.
Projects like these create safe space for open conversations, and they are so important for young people. This is where they have a chance to talk about their wellbeing, vent what stresses them, share what they enjoy, explore what they’re curious about, and everything else they want to bring. For the girls, the weekly group sessions come with moments of empowerment and community support. I love seeing the girls support each other in the weekly sessions, on trips and residentials, during the supergroups, and even during other youth club sessions.
“Ultimately, for me, the most valuable part of this work is witnessing girls take ownership of their stories, their wellbeing, and their choices. Whether through mentoring, therapy, or simply sitting in a circle and talking about the things that matter to them, the girls shape these spaces as much as we do. “
Even as projects shift and funding cycles change, their energy, honesty, and leadership continue to guide us. The future of girls’ work at Mary’s Youth Club feels bright because it’s being written by the girls themselves. What keeps me committed to this work is seeing the sense of belonging that grows week by week. Girls who felt shy becoming more confident, girls who felt unheard finding their voice, and girls who were strangers becoming each other’s support system. These projects have shown us what is possible when young women are given room to explore, question, and simply be.
Written by Bea
SIS Project Youth Worker
