At a recent event, we were asked for advice specifically related to supporting girls within Girlguiding. One of our members with a background in Girlguiding and therapeutic work has addressed this in the article below. Despite it being aimed specifically at Girlguiding, the advice can be useful for many different adults working with groups of young people.
HOW CAN GIRLGUIDING LEADERS SUPPORT THEIR GIRLS AND UNDERSTAND THEIR PRESSURES AND RESILIENCE?
Girlguiding is a hugely valuable and positive resource for girls and young women’s development of resilience and positive self- identity. But the modern day stresses that girls and young women are coping with in day-to-day life are having a range of negative effects. Young Minds, the UK’S leading charity committed to improving the emotional wellbeing and mental health of children and young people, is supporting and advising Girlguiding in its work on girls wellbeing and has helped to create the peer education programme, ‘Think Resilient’, which teaches girls how to manage difficulties and cope when times are tough.
Girls are facing unprecedented levels of stress and pressure: to do well at school; to look and behave in a certain way; to measure up to expectations from friends, family, teachers and the media. Girls tell us that the combination of all these pressures can be unmanageable and is having damaging consequences for their wellbeing.
Girlguiding has an important part to play in developing girls’ resilience and supporting their wellbeing. We have always supported girls to recognise and develop their skills and interests, to challenge themselves, to have fun and to make brilliant friends. Girlguiding can play a vital prevention role in relation to girls’ mental health by strengthening resilience and offering a safe, fun and supportive space where they can get away from the pressures of school and be themselves. Through peer education, Girlguiding delivers programmes that enable girls to think and talk about issues that are important to them. Peer Educators deliver sessions on:
Think Resilient
– this focuses on building girls’ mental wellbeing through resilience building techniques and planning how to manage difficulties in their lives, and recognise and apply positive coping strategies and support.
Free Being Me
– focuses on growing girls, body confidence and self-esteem, and challenges unrealistic beauty ideals.
Healthy Relationships
– helps to ensure girls can develop and identify good, safe and healthy relationships.
HOW CAN WE AS LEADERS SUPPORT OUR GIRLS?
There is a gap in the support available for girls’ wellbeing, and in tackling the causes and consequences of the decline in how girls tell us how they feel. Girls value having a safe girl only space in which to talk about how they feel, girls need positive support networks and safe spaces in which to talk about how they are feeling. When stress is normalised and girls feel embarrassed to talk about their concerns it will be much harder for them to cope.
To support girls’ wellbeing, Girlguiding advocates call on the government to:
*Listen to girls and young women, take them seriously and make sure their voices count.
*Demand that school’s take a zero- tolerance approach to sexual harassment
*Teach wellbeing and respect through compulsory PSHE and RSE
*Stop children’s exposure to harmful sexualised images and content in mainstream media
We want all girls to live in a society that is equal and where they do not feel resigned to gendered pressures and to having to cope alone, and as leaders we can ensure we provide our girls with the safe space and opportunity they need to thrive, feel valued and to be and feel the very best they can be.
Michelle Cook
Learning and Family Support Worker/Practitioner with Therapeutic Skills