Jane Kenyon, a local entrepreneur and founder of North West-based charity, Girls Out Loud, is putting out a call to action to save some of the UK’s most vulnerable teenage girls as they face the most challenging Christmas period to date.
The charity, which aims to raise the aspirations and empower teenage girls in the UK, is calling for your help, now more than ever. Whether it’s fundraising or engaging with the charity’s mentor schemes, it is vital that the community comes together to fight for the futures of young girls across the region.
In the midst of a global pandemic, with national lockdowns, tight restrictions on visiting friends and family, school closures and limitations on social gatherings, things have worsened. North West police are experiencing a 75% increase in reports of child abuse, the number of abusive images online have tripled and 41% of young people with a mental illness say that Covid-19 has made their condition worse.
Data from the NHS states that in the past 10 years there has been a 54% increase in anti-depressant prescriptions for under 18s and 1 in 4 girls will self-harm before they leave secondary school, with a 68% rise in hospital admissions for self-harm.
Jane Kenyon, founder of Girls Out Loud, said: “Girls Out Loud is the leading brand supporting and empowering young girls in the North West. We are a social enterprise in our 10th year tackling the growing mental health epidemic amongst 12 to16 year-olds as we create and deliver early intervention programmes.
“In the 10 years I have been working with teenage girls their world has got a whole lot worse – this has been a depressing decade for mental health, sexual exploitation and harassment, eating disorders, grooming, bullying and relational aggression, the Insta selfie, the surge of reality TV, date rape and consent issues, fixation on appearance over ability and the growth in consumerism.
“The current pandemic has undoubtably impacted the mental health and wellbeing of the next generation. With parents working from home and experiencing higher levels of stress and possibly financial worries, some of the UK’s most vulnerable girls are bearing the brunt of such stresses.
“Many young girls have lost their support networks and are unable to see friends, adding to feelings of loneliness, hopelessness and isolation.
“Feminism has taken a serious hit as girls struggle to find their voice and their place, many having a full-on identity crisis before they leave secondary school. We have some work to do to support and inspire them.”
Girls Out Loud offer various programmes and schemes in their mission to empower, inspire and save the next generation of teenage girls, including, Sister Act, an apprenticeship programme which combines knowledge gained from delivering intervention programmes to young girls in the North West with input from local employers.
Big Sister Mentoring, introduces young girls to inspiring women in the North West who can offer guidance and the confidence for these young girls to step up, find their own voice and shine as well as offering workshops, role model relay and Stardom Programme works with up to 20 ‘at risk’ girls over the course of a year, providing 1-2-1 and group support sessions using techniques from mainstream coaching and mindfulness practises delivered by a team of highly skilled and experienced stardom coaches
