The Users Forum group meets on a monthly basis and its aim is for the members to act as the voice of young women. This ensures that their views are constantly represented and included in the consultation process of the organisation.
The group is open to new members who have taken part in any of our programmes and wish to support the development of Getaway Girls. The group also acts as a representative body at both regional and national level on issues which affect the lives of young people.
To ensure that the members continue with their own personal development the group also organises activities which offer the opportunity of new experiences and challenges.
The User’s Forum has recently had wonderful success! Over the summer we were meeting once a week with a core group of 6 young women to put together an idea for the Thrifty Squid challenge.
This was a national competition supported by Barclays bank open to all youth groups to come up with an idea which would support other young people to understand money matters. The 1st prize was £10,000 and second was £5.000 to develop the idea further.
|
Kikass productions in London supported us all the way and found us 2 local ‘creatives’ Amy & Beth to work along side the group developing their ideas into a reality The group came up with an idea for an interactive DVD where young people could go the Angels way or the Devils way to spending money with rewards and consequences as you went along. We submitted the idea at the end of August and after a long agonising wait we heard that we were in the top 10 in the country!
A few long weeks later we heard we were in the top 5! And off we went to Downing Street to meet the other 4 groups in the final.
Just going to London and being able to go into number 11 Downing Street was reward enough but after a few hours the winners were announced and we Getaway Girls Users Forum walked away with 2nd prize!
We were all ecstatic! We were in the Yorkshire Evening Post and the young women gave an interview for Radio 5 Live.
We will now start working on making the DVD and raising the rest of the funds we need to complete it.
Well Done Girls
Check out the photos outside Number 10
|
