Showcase

The Daughter’s Project

The Daughters’ Project is a multi-faceted campaign that intentionally aims to engage young women along with their parents and communities in discussion and debate on key issues which relate to the world around them and may contribute to the development of their sense of wellbeing and the form of their social relationships.

The Daughters’ Project allows for engagement and participation via the following activities:

• Do You Know Where Your Daughter Is?

This play is an entertainingly delivered, fast-paced drama that explores a variety of social and personal relationships, experienced by a group of young friends. The play tackles many issues, including: the process of maturity, parental relations, peer pressure, bullying, sexuality, sexual and physical abuse, misuse of drugs and alcohol.

The full production of the play is presented for a public audience and an edited version is performed in-schools. Both version of the play are followed by a post show discussion between the audience and the members of the cast, who remain in character for the Q&A.

• For Daughters Shop-Front (The Girls House):

The Girls House is a high street located space, made available for the exclusive use of young women, which utilizes empty shop fronts on a short –term basis.

The Girls House offers up to date information and on-line interactivity via community website, www.thegirlshouse.co.uk

The initiative has been piloted by the London Borough of Lewisham as part of a front line, health and well being awareness campaign, led by the borough’s Primary Care Trust and Young People’s Health Project. The aim of the campaign is to engage young females in order to provide them with:

Introduction and access to local services

• Information about their rights if assaulted
• Opportunities to explore personal boundaries and effective ways of enforcing it
• Opportunities to learn from engagement with other females and to explore their own understandings of themselves as females

The programme offers young women a pathway from other youth service activities into vocational training and further education:

• Young volunteers are recruited to support the services provided at the shop.  They earn training credits which are exchanged for course fees at any of the participating local colleges.

• The young volunteers also earn a place to join the International Dodwell Trust Madagascar Volunteer Programme.

Partners who made it happen

The Daughters’ Project encourages partnerships between front-line public and voluntary sector organisations (I.E. arts & culture, education, youth, police, community and health) with the objectives to positively engage and support girls and young women in their communities.

The partners for the Girls House at Lewisham were:

Private landlords, Straight to Audience Productions,  Lewisham Primary Care Trust, Youth Services, Sexual Health Services, Rolling Sands, Sure Start Plus, South London Mental Health, Family Planning Association, Dodwell Trust, Goldsmith College Turning Point, Albany Empire

Points where the project looked threatened, how was this overcome?

Threat: Lewisham’s commercial business rates cost £1,000 per week.  So even though the landlords provide the shops at a nominal rent, high rates seriously threatened the ability for the programme to continue

Solution: This has presently been overcome through support from the funding partners.  Future tenancies may need to either be taken up by a registered charity or appeals made to the local authority to waive the business rates

Threat: Young men who occasionally loiter outside the shop and challenge the provision of an exclusive space for young women

Solution: Support from local Detached Youth Workers, who were able to engage the young men and offer them suitable alternative activities

Threat: The need to generate a sense of ownership and fully engaged commitment from the local resident communities and participating agencies.  For example, read the opening debate on the Sydenham Forum weblog:

Sydenham Forum debate on the Girls House

The best stories to come out of it (so far)

There are many. Highlights include:

• The current comments on the Sydenham Forum weblog

• The Young Volunteers progression into formal education and the opportunity they have to contribute to the community development in Madagascar

The impacts of the project and how you have measured them

780 people attended presentations of the Play and discussions at the Albany Theatre.  Measured via box office booking system

270 people attended 3 x in-schools presentations of the Play and discussions. Measured via registration

2,500 attenders to The Girls House Shop

5,000 visitors to the Girls House website

16 Young Volunteers

16 Young Volunteers into training

12 Young Volunteers going to Madagascar

A budget/costs explanation

£100,000:                  Start up and first presentation of the Play, Shop and activities in Lewisham

£30,000:                  Estimated transfer and running costs of Sydenham Shop

Income details

Income provided from:  Lewisham Primary Care Trust, Youth Services, Sexual Health Services, Sure Start Plus, Family Planning Association, Dodwell Trust, Goldsmith College Turning Point, Albany Empire

Contributor

Straight To Audience Productions Limited

137 Brookbank Road

London SE13 7DA

Contact:

Frank Sweeney: 020 8521 3775/ 07957 111 512

franklynsweeney@yahoo.co.uk

For photos, media clips etc, see www.thegirlshouse.co.uk