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The Girls’ Network

Since 2013, The Girls’ Network has been inspiring and empowering girls from the least advantaged communities by connecting them with a mentor and a network of professional female role models.

The charity is no stranger to the value of great stories – especially when it comes to them getting media coverage and external engagement. But as many organisations will agree, they’ve found that getting these stories can be tricky. Just arranging the interviews can take time. That’s before you’ve even had the chance to properly interview someone, and gain the trust needed to tease out the stories that best showcase what you do.

Earlier this year, we had the pleasure of working with the Girls’ Network as part of their efforts to put their stories firmly at the heart of their ambitions to work with more schools and businesses in the West Midlands.

This started with a conversation between us and their Head of Communications. As with all the organisations we work with, we wanted to develop a standard narrative that we could use when speaking to the girls and mentors in their community. That meant asking questions about how The Girls’ Network perceives itself in terms of its personality; who it describes as its audiences; and how it wants people to feel when they come away from hearing about the Network.

Having also agreed on which participants and mentors would best support the charity’s ambition to expand into the West Midlands, we were ready to start arranging a series of interviews.

We were then able to produce a series of written content that captured the importance of The Girls’ Network, through the voice of their community.

Speaking to some of the young people involved in the scheme had its challenges. For many young people, speaking to adults is rarely an enjoyable experience. So we simply took our time to build trust and get the girls to feel like they could open up about their experiences of being involved in The Girls’ Network.

This content will now help The Girls’ Network really set out the value of their work, as part of the conversations they’ll be having with local business and schools in the West Midlands.

To find out more about The Girls’ Network, visit their website.

Some excerpts from our work with The Girls’ Network.

 
There’s still a perception that girls should only do certain subjects and careers… because many of our girls won’t have friends or those at home who can help drive their interest in subjects like computer science. That’s why we were immediately excited to hear from The Girls Network.

…thanks to The Girls’ Network, our girls are now getting a constant dialogue with a like-minded mentor and role model. This has really changed things. It’s opened new doors, new ideas and aspirations. It’s incredible to see. “

– teacher working with The Girls’ Network.
 
…I liked the idea of getting involved with The Girls’ Network. When they came to our school, they talked about how I could get to where I wanted to go. They talked about boosting confident – and I wanted that. Because I’ve struggled at times to speak out in bigger crowds. Which is why I don’t always put my hand up in class.

… my mentor makes me want to do law even more. I’ve started to do more in lessons and put my hand up. I’ve started speaking out in bigger groups. “

– pupil involved with The Girls’ Network.