Kingborough Council’s Young Women’s Program has given nine young women in Kingborough the opportunity to develop new skills and emotional resilience.
The participants have enjoyed workshops designed to assist them to identify things that make them feel good about themselves, their health and their wellbeing, as well as identifying those things that may be impacting on them that have the opposite effect. By separating the two, participants can see what they do have control over and recognise how they can create opportunities to do the things that make them feel empowered. They can also recognise that even if they have no control over negative impacts, they have options to try and address them or avenues to seek help and support.
Other information sessions covered body image and self-care, cyber safety and online bullying, and alcohol and drug awareness. The program engages the young women in activity-based education, which encourages them to be valuable members of a group, and in a community.
To celebrate their achievements in completing the program, the young women had a day out at Kyalami Equestrian, working alongside and riding horses. For some of the young women, this was a big challenge. They all rose to the occasion by spending time getting to know the horses, grooming them and then riding them inside the arena. Feedback from participants in the program has been positive, and they feel it has helped them, as well as given them the tools to seek help and advice if needed.
Council also runs a program for young men, and this will be organised later in the year. The Mayor of Kingborough, Cr Steve Wass said, “These programs provide our young people with support and advice on how to be resilient and how to work together. It also gives them access to a lot of information and knowledge. We applaud them for their achievements in completing the program.”
The Young Women’s Program is run in partnership with Kingston High School, along with other service providers including Pulse Youth Health Services, Colony 47’s Reconnect Program, the Drug Education Network and the Police and Citizens Youth Club.