Safe spaces urgently needed for young women and girls.

Research and consultation with community members/groups revealed urgent work needed to support young women in Bristol from disadvantaged communites via our workshops in radio/podcast skills in a safe space.

Sound Women Bristol (SWB) have been reached out to by a number of young people directly who we have worked with before asking if we can continue to support them after the success of previous workshops.  Gang culture, knife crime, cuts to youth services and the trauma of all that on top of a global pandemic has led to many young poeple experiencing crisis.  With cuts not just to local youth services but also to mental health services young women are asking for support.  With thanks to Nisbet and Quartet Funding we were able to run another series of workshops not only providing a safe space but to also provide training in podcasting, radio skills, story telling. This enabled a space to open up and discuss issues that young women may not usually wish to discuss and we realise there is still so much work to do especially around harm recuction.

Detailed research by SWB with young women and other community
members/organisations has revealed that there is a huge problem in the city now with a pandemic of knife crime and gang culture. SWB want to offer training/workshops and a safe space for young women to learn skills in podcasting and radio and offer a chance to have a platform and have their stories and voices heard whilst also learning new skills that could help towards generating an income. We believe by working with young women that we can at least start the conversations needed to address issues that our
young are facing today post pandemic and offer opportunities for them to feel
empowered by learning skills in podcasting and radio which can help with empowerment and confidence with public speaking through presenting and literacy through script writing as well as other skills it will help with community cohesion and isolation which has been a huge problem since the pandemic as well as cuts to youth services. Thanks to other workshops we were able to deliver in 2023 we worked with some young women and had a real insight into the depth of the issues and were told by 1 participant that we had “saved her life by giving her a purpose and a safe space instead of hanging out on
the streets with nothing to do”. We have already seen what attending SWB workshops can do in helping address issues of gender and race inequality and can see the benefits of sharing these skills which empower and create opportunities for women and young women that couldn’t afford to pay for this kind of training. By offering free to attend workshops in these marginalised communities we are helping to create community cohesion and address issues of isolation, particularly since the pandemic. We have nearly doubled our volunteers that regularly help with our networking and support events that we do in person and online
as well as over 1400 SWB members. We are determined to address issues that we
faced and hope that the next generation of young women won’t have to face such
inequalities as we did.

This year alone we SWB delivered podcast and radio workshops that allowed women a safe space and provided a platform for voices that so often go unheard. We have had huge success since we started and determined to address issues highlighted by our research and cuts to youth services. We delivered another
series of workshops for 70 young women, 7 x 3 hour workshops for 10 young women at a time with opportunities to continue volunteering at SWB and be part of the SWB networking and support group. We now over just over 1400 members since we started and research with the community and community groups/centres back up this crucial need. We have recently been working with Peacemakers Patrol & Reverend Palmer and helped to organise recent awareness campaigns around knife crime as well as many local youth groups and schools.

Thanks to all the people who helped to arrange these events in a discreet and safe space.