In many cultures, reflecting on what we have to be grateful for can help us see our blessings, even in the face of adversity. However, this isn’t universally true, so reflect before using this on whether this is an appropriate youth work tool in your culture. If your culture is one where gifts can be […]
Category Archives: Toolkit 4 – Developing Young Women’s Leadership Through Youth Work
Healthy eating is important for growing African teenagers and their brains! Eating a balanced diet also contributes to managing moods and emotions and getting a good night’s sleep. Whilst healthy eating may seem out of reach for some of the young women we work with, you don’t have a choice about what they eat at […]
How we meet people is very cultural, and we know that how we interact affects our whole lives. The friends we make, the connections we gain, and the knowledge we access all affect our opportunities. Many young women we work with have low confidence, and may also come from sectors of society where they are […]
Communication is sharing or exchanging information or ideas with someone. Good communication means understanding your audience, what they need to know, and how they need to be given the information. To communicate well one also needs to listen to others. We also need to think about how to express ourselves in ways that others will […]
Many of the young women we work with face conflict in their families or communities. We cannot expect them to solve all the problems around them, but we can help them to develop skills to do this. What is the best way to handle a disagreement between people? The four steps below can easily help […]
In South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya, where we come from, it’s crucial for young women and girls to understand how others expect us to behave so that we can communicate effectively. Other people’s expectations are not always fair – but even if we need to speak up we need to understand how best to do […]
The young women we work with are part of families and communities. It’s important to help the young women we work with to realise that they can create positive change in their communities. We are always amazed and inspired by the girls we work with, often from very challenging homes, who choose to become mentors […]
When you run alone, you run fast. When you run together, you run far. Zambian Proverb The great adventure of working with young women is that it never ends. As leaders in youth work, all of us have things to share to inspire each other in our work to empower young women as leaders. We […]
Friendship is of central importance to most young women and girls. Their friends are their reference group, their main influence and occupy much of their time. An important part of a mentor’s role is to help a young woman to negotiate her friendships, which can cause her both joy and pain. Helping your mentee to […]
It’s very normal to think about dating when one is young, but we often don’t know how to discuss it with young people. Dating has changed so much in recent years, but the principles remain the same: We want young women to value themselves, and to make positive choices We want young women to understand […]