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case study:

Aspire and The Co-operative Group Empower Young Women

Background

The Co-operative Group is a unique business, democratically run by members to meet their common needs and aspirations. So, instead of blindly chasing profits like businesses controlled by shareholders, they are able to steer their business in a more responsible direction. They offer everything from banks, farms, food and financial services to travel, online shopping and healthcare. The Co-operative Group is committed to supporting the positive contribution that children and young people can make to their local communities. Overall, the company’s current community projects will benefit 250,000 young people. For one such project, they drew on the expert facilitating skills of the Aspire team to deliver an empowerment workshop for a group of 20 young women from disadvantaged communities. To deliver the workshop, Aspire teamed up with The Co-operative Group and Reclaim, a multiple award-winning leadership and mentoring project based in Manchester, which enables young people from some of the most disadvantaged communities to engage directly with the decision makers influencing their lives.

Objectives

The workshop was designed to help these young women begin to deal with their personal challenges and empower them to make positive changes and find inner strength and self-belief.

Programme

The workshop was co-facilitated by ASPIRE Coach Carolyn Dawson and The Co-operative Group’s Head of Workplace Services, Kate Morris, who led the group of 12-year-olds in many practical and experiential exercises. The girls were encouraged to ‘find their voice’, one of the key objectives of the workshop, by creating masks and playing improvisation games. To spark the possibility that they could become leaders of the future, each girl created their own vision board representing what they want to have achieved by the time they are 20 years old. Blending Aspire’s knowledge and expertise in women’s leadership with input from The Co-operative Group on how things work in the business world, especially for women, provided the girls with a practical and fun insight into women in business.

"Part of what we wanted to do was help them find their voice and spark the possibility that they could become leaders of the future. To do this, I drew on the work that Aspire does with business leaders regarding the self-esteem and self-belief they need to succeed as I felt it could be adapted and applied equally well to these young women."
Carolyn Dawson, Aspire Coach and Programme Leader

Participant Comments/Results

"It was great to see girls who had low self esteem speaking out and feeling confident in the group to share their ideas. All the parents have commented on the improved confidence levels of the girls when they returned home."
Melissa Rainey, Community Liaison Officer, Urbis, which houses the RECLAIM project

"This was a unique partnership and a very exciting opportunity as it was the very first time we have worked with Aspire and the first time we have specifically engaged young people using a business leadership approach."
Ruth Ibegbuna, Founder, RECLAIM

"Carolyn had a real rapport with the girls and mentors – the girls specifically fed back that they liked the way in which she communicated with them. Carolyn developed a fantastic day and facilitated in an equally fantastic manner!"
Kate Morris, Head of Workplace Services, The Co-operative Group