International Women’s Day Leadership Award
Firstly, thanks to the Leadership Award Steering Group, this group realised the potential of the initiative and worked together to drive it forward.
All members of the Steering Group (SG) contributed in a positive and supportive way which made the
meeting, constructive, productive and most of all enjoyable. I would highly recommend this style of
working for any appropriate Programme Action or major fundraising initiatives.
After initial publicity and a number of interested applicants, interviews 5 young women were selected to attend the RYLA leadership training at Grafham Water. Funding was secured from local Rotary Clubs, the Police and Crime Commissioner of Suffolk the Great Yarmouth Grammar School Foundation – and of course our own fundraising events. Members of the S.G. gave up their time to attend Grafham Water to provide support, transport, and feedback – this was greatly appreciated by our attendees. We also completed general confidence building, swimming lessons and public speaking sessions for those that needed it.
The talks/reports given by the attendees after attending RYLA were – in my view – a high spot to our Soroptimist calendar. We received some great social media coverage and we hope to achieve similar success for the coming year and were pleased to raise £860 at our well timed IWD fundraising quiz – enough to fully fund our RYLA candidate for the coming year. Thanks to everyone who contributed with the hampers, the raffle, and the organisation on the night – it was a lot of work but also a lot of fun. We were also grateful to the Imperial Hotel and to GYROS who provided the cake and made it such an effective fundraising event.
The current coronavirus situation has affected our plans for this coming year. We will maintain updates
via email and as soon as we know whether RYLA is going ahead this year, we will attempt to hold a
“Zoom” video S.G. meeting to discuss the way forward. If any members would like to join the steering group or attend on an ad hoc basis we really would appreciate the extra support. In any event thanks again for the work and support that has made this initiative such a success.
Rosa Russell (Leadership Award Steering Group) 24th April 2020
