YWCA

about us

Our vision, aims and strategy

 

YWCA’s vision is that all young women, particularly those who live in the most deprived areas across England and Wales, are able to overcome the prejudice and barriers they face and fulfil their potential.

Young women are at the centre of all that we do. They come to YWCA for support, guidance and opportunities designed with their specific needs in mind, and we campaign with them to combat the discrimination and disadvantage they face. Through our help and support we want them to:

• be inspired and determined
• be healthy and safe
• be in control
• speak out and be listened to
• gain opportunities, and
• give back.

YWCA works predominently with women aged 11 to 30, but to have the greatest impact and influence on their lives we need to be creative and pragmatic. This may mean that we:

• work with older women whose direct influence on younger women will lead the latter to seek our services
• may sometimes need to work with men to challenge their perceptions of young women and influence their treatment of them
• work with younger girls so that when they become teenagers they have greater aspirations.

We will always work in the ways that get the best results for young women, directly or indirectly.

It's important to young women that they can focus on what matters to them in a safe, women-only environment. So all our centres provide services in ways that make them feel comfortable and so help them progress and grow. We are absolutely committed to meeting the diverse needs of all young women who come to us for help, guidance and support.

What we plan to do

Over the next few years we plan to:

• make our work more effective, reach out to more young women and offer them quality assured services
• make sure that our influence is as effective as possible
• increase the number of young women taking part and volunteering, and attract more support and volunteers
• considerably improve our commercial and income generation capability
• strengthen recognition of what we do
• manage change effectively and grow.

The themes of our work

Young women have told us that these are the themes have the most impact on their lives:

• education, employment and skills
• health and wellbeing
• crime and offending
• money and debt

And so these are what we'll be working on. Each of these themes is grounded in the services and opportunities that we provide for young women.