Last Thursday, The Deans Youth Centre in Swinton hosted an International Women’s Day event for young girls across Salford to discover career options that are available to them.
The centre have been hosting events for International Women’s Day events for many years and this year’s theme was #BalanceforBetter, which refers to the gender pay gap.
This year’s event was set up to allow young girls to explore careers that aren’t traditionally seen as ‘women’s jobs’.
Donna Niman, who is part of the team who runs the event, explained: “we wanted to make sure that we were presenting the young women of Salford with a whole range of careers that they could explore.”
The event featured a number of representatives from different career options including a police officer, a primary school teacher, a DJ, a personal trainer and more.
Detective Sergeant Zoe Nightingale, who is based at Swinton Police Station, said: “The reason why I felt it was so important to come is working with young people and trying to dispel a lot of myths around what the police is about.
“I think sometimes the police uniform can be a bit of a barrier and it’s important to interact with young people and let them know that we are human beings and we can have a chat.”
Sarah Draper, a manager at United Utilities who attended the youth centre as a young girl, said: “I feel that it’s important that the young women of Salford know that if you work hard enough you can achieve anything in any industry.”
As well as women in careers, there were also a number of activities for the young girls to take part in, including a poetry workshop, zine making and a personal training activity.
Donna Black, who runs the young women’s group at the centre, brought her daughter Hatty to the event.
She explained: “I’ve brought my seven-year-old daughter here today because I feel that its really important that she knows that things don’t need to be shut off from her, if she wants to be doing things she can do these things.”
Hatty was keen to point out that she is learning these lessons in school.
The venue was decorated with inspirational words that were chosen by the young girls themselves.
The event was opened with a speech from Charlotte Ramsden, Director of Children’s Services and Adult Social Care in Salford.
Have a listen to what Charlotte had to say about the event below
To find out more information about The Deans Youth Centre take a look at their website.
Recent Comments