Celebrating the Impact and Legacy of UK Youth’s EmpowHER Model

“It’s been one of the best projects I’ve been able to work on,” – youth worker

The enthusiasm and love for EmpowHER among young people and youth workers has been overwhelming.

Over five years, UK Youth’s EmpowHER model – a gender-targeted youth social action approach – has provided young women and girls+ the opportunity to run their own changemaking projects, writes Molly Dawson, UK Youth Research & Learning Officer.

. Young women and girls+ participating in our first EmpowHER programme, from 2018-21, saw statistically significant improvements in wellbeing, confidence and skills.

EmpowHER Legacy, from 2021-23, the follow up to the original EmpowHER programme, aimed to reach many more young people, while maintaining the quality of delivery and strong positive impact for young people. The evaluation of the programme also explored the wider outcomes for youth workers and youth organisations of trying to scale and embed the EmpowHER model.

EmpowHER Legacy saw 746 young women and girls+ actively participating in youth social action, developing 79 new projects in their communities which addressed critical issues such as violence against women, body image and environmental concerns.

We saw evidence of positive outcomes for participants, similar to the statistically significant improvements in happiness, confidence and social action habits achieved during the original programme.

All this was achieved while reaching almost double the number of young women and girls+ per £1 invested compared with the original programme.

Youth workers, the driving force behind EmpowHER, dedicated more than 2,800 hours to delivering social learning and social action support.

During the programme and evaluation, youth workers told us how highly they think of EmpowHER – they enjoyed delivering it and witnessed the difference it made among the young women and girls+ they work with.

The positive impacts of the EmpowHER model also extended to youth workers, who found lasting value in EmpowHER resources, such as the EmpowHER Toolkit, and the experience of delivering the programme. Youth practitioners were able to develop their skills and confidence in leading youth-led practice, social action and gender-targeted provision.

While delivering the progamme, youth workers connected with an incredible 171 other organisations, which varied hugely in size and scope from small community radio stations to international charities.

Working with partner organisations enriched delivery, fulfilled operational needs and provided pathways for further opportunities for young people.

For some youth workers, the programme’s push towards partnership working was a new area in which to develop their confidence and skills.

Where partnership working was youth-led, young people were also able to develop their skills and confidence in communication and public speaking.

READ MORE: Proud Youth Volunteer Champions Positive Change Through UK Youth’s EmpowHER Programme

One striking aspect of the programme’s legacy is young participants’ enthusiasm about continuing to make change beyond participation in EmpowHER.

Youth workers were able to support young women and girls+ to find further opportunities for volunteering, campaigning and fundraising, for example through partner organisations.

Young women and girls+ also found or made their own opportunities – they set up EmpowHER sessions at their schools, started planning the next steps of their social action project or stepped up as Young Leaders. We even saw examples of young people joining their youth organisations as staff members or volunteers after taking part in EmpowHER.

Youth organisations have also made the most of the programme’s benefits by finding diverse uses for EmpowHER resources, developing their own programmes inspired by the EmpowHER model and using evidence of EmpowHER’s impact and UK Youth’s profile to secure additional and future funding for their work.

For youth organisations interested in delivering EmpowHER, loads of resources are available via the EmpowHER Toolkit. Alternatively, for more about the EmpowHER Legacy programme and UK Youth’s recommendations for scaling and embedding youth social action, read the summary report here, or the full report here.

With additional funding, UK Youth would deliver the EmpowHER model at greater scale, to give more young women and girls+ the chance to lead youth social action in their communities and build a society that works for them.

Watch this space for more blogs about what we have learned through EmpowHER and our wider youth social action programming…

EmpowHER targets young women and girls specifically to address disproportionately low wellbeing among this group. However, we recognise these challenges also affect other marginalised genders and want to make EmpowHER a welcoming space for these young people too. For this reason, we use ‘young women and girls+’ to include young people participating in the programme who may not identify as young women or girls.

UK Youth is a leading charity with a vision that all young people are equipped to thrive and empowered to contribute at every stage of their lives. With an open network of more than 8,000 youth organisations and nation partners; UK Youth reaches more than four million young people across the UK and is focused on unlocking youth work as the catalyst of change that is needed now more than ever. To find out more, visit ukyouth.org

UK Youth is involved in various programmes designed to help young people thrive, such as outdoor learning, physical literacy, social action and employability, including Hatch, a youth employability programme run in partnership with KFC. For more on UK Youth’s programmes, see ukyouth.org/what-we-do/programmes