Media Release
YWCA of Wellington Hutt Valley
Friday 3 July 2009

Young leaders ready to help the community

Young women from Wellington East Girls College will be embarked on the next step in their leadership journey during New Zealand Leadership Week. Ten young women involved in the YWCA of Wellington & Hutt Valley’s mentoring programme Discover™ have been given the chance to work on a practical leadership project to make a difference in our local community, says Discover™ programme manager Lili Schmidt-Uili.

The Discover™ programme works with young women in Years 12 and 13 over 18 months, in which students are offered free one-on-one mentoring by women. These mentors offer practical assistance and actively encourage mentees to broaden their horizons, embrace new challenges, set and achieve goals.

“With the Discover™ Community Project, we want young women to understand and except themselves, facilitate their own leadership style, take risks and successfully interact with people outside of their peers and social group” says Wellington YWCA President Lynell Tuffery.

Participants last weekend heard from a variety of volunteers and organisations, including Habitat for Humanity, Trade Aid, Ronald McDonald House, Oxfam NZ and the Global Resource Centre. Wellington East Girls School student Flo Tupufia learnt that leadership requires continual learning and she can make a difference.

“I understand more of the global issues we face in the world by listening to the speakers. We need to be passionate about what changes we want in the world” said Flo Tupufia.

Ms Tuffery says the programme enables young Wellington women from a wide range of backgrounds to get access to a unique and accessible mentoring programme that will equip them with the leadership skills to have a positive impact within the communities they live in.

Discover™ was launched in 2008 with Wellington East Girls School first to benefit from the programme.

The YWCA is the largest women’s organisation in the world incorporating over 110 countries and uniting more than 25 million women. The vision of the World YWCA is to empower young women through leadership. The YWCA of Wellington and Hutt Valley was established in 1906 and continues to support local women leadership initiatives, celebrate women’s achievements and advocate for young women’s issues: www.wgtnywca.org.nz

ENDS

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