Empowering Girls

The Empowering Girls programme is managed by the Devon, Plymouth & Torbay Careers Hub, with support from founder Sarah Abrahams and a network of mentors. The programme partners inspiring professional women with Year 9 girls, aged 13–14, to help enhance their confidence and broaden their aspirations.

SDS’s involvement was led by Sarah Carter, Operations Director, who took part as a mentor. Over the past year, Sarah has mentored three girls through the programme, supporting them through a structured series of mentoring sessions designed to build self-belief, encourage positive thinking and help them explore future pathways.

This reflects our commitment to using Together360 to create meaningful social value and help young people explore.

The programme is delivered through six one-hour mentoring sessions over six weeks. These sessions cover topics such as “Who Inspires You?” and “How to link your skills and abilities to what you love doing”. Through these conversations, mentees are encouraged to reflect on their strengths, interests and ambitions, while developing the confidence to work towards their career goals. The key aims of the programme are to shatter stereotypes, instil self-belief, introduce girls to female role models across a wide range of sectors, inspire them to pursue their ambitions with confidence, and give them access to knowledge, tools, skills and support to overcome barriers to success. Sarah’s involvement aligns closely with SDS’s Together360 programme, our social value framework designed to support positive outcomes for people, communities and the environment. Together360 is structured around four core pillars: Wellbeing & Growth, Community Connection, Planet Positivity, and Empowering the Next Generation.

The Empowering Girls programme strongly supports our Empowering the Next Generation pillar, which is centred on helping young people thrive through education, skills development, mentoring and access to positive role models. By dedicating her time as a mentor, Sarah has played a meaningful role in supporting young people during a critical stage of their development, helping to build confidence, raise aspirations and increase awareness of future educational and career pathways.

Through Sarah’s involvement, SDS has supported a programme that inspires and empowers young women by providing confidence-building opportunities and access to positive female role models. This demonstrates our commitment to delivering meaningful social value through Together360, while helping young people develop the confidence, resilience and ambition needed to achieve their full potential.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Build confidence and self-belief
• Reflect on strengths and interests
• Explore future career pathways
• Challenge stereotypes around work
• Connect with positive female role models
• Develop tools to overcome barriers