It’s been a Good Year!
We have had a good year at Catalyse Change, highlights being our summer Catalyst Bootcamp, and new mentoring programme, with professional women who work in sustainability supporting 25 young women on their learning journey. We are now busy making plans for next year, building on the learning from this one. In order to help make this happen – we have just launched a fundraising appeal for our Bursary fund – to provide free places for young women from disadvantaged backgrounds.
What is our Catalyst Bootcamp?
This year’s Catalyst Bootcamp (CB) hosted 25 young women – aged from 14-24 years, at Bristol Uni student halls of residence – where for three days they learnt about Green Career options and pathways from lots of inspirational women working in sustainability; from Bristol Lord Mayor Cleo Lake to campaigner Nat Fee founder of City to Sea, their careers covered a diverse range of sectors from; renewable energy, social enterprise to zero-waste.
The mentors worked with them on a ‘sustainability challenge’, on a theme they are most passionate about; to learn about the issues, to explore solutions and to develop the ‘softer’ skills for employability along the way. We also explored techniques for personal development, in order to build confidence and resilience e.g. mindfulness and yoga.
Watch the Film The CB is a fun and transformational experience, to find out more and hear from some of the young women who attended, check out this short film of our Catalyst Bootcamp. We also have a great report with lots of pics and quotes, you can read it here
What is a our mentoring programme? To inspire and empower girls and young women as confident, resilient changemakers – by connecting them with a mentor and network of professional female role models.
Why are we doing this? We believe achieving a low carbon, sustainable future requires a transformation in thinking, with equality and sustainability at its core. The active voices of girls and young women – who bring different perspectives and ideas for change – are key to achieving this.
What is mentoring? The role involves providing on-to-one support to a young woman looking to pursue a green education and career but not currently sure how to achieve it.
“A mentor is someone who sees more talent and ability within you, than you see in yourself, and helps bring it out of you.” Bob Proctor
What have we learnt so far? We will produce a full evaluation of the process and outcomes at the end of this six month programme. However so far we have already had lots of positive feedback from mentees – and mentors too – about the value of the experience for them:
‘My mentor is so thorough and it has been great to learn from someone with such a wealth of knowledge and experience in the sustainability sector. I especially enjoy being able to discuss attributes needed for leadership / management roles as these positions are something I hadn’t really considered before. ’
“My mentor has been really lovely, so far we’ve just been getting to know each other so talking about our interests and hobbies, and talking a bit about what we what we want to get out of this experience. She’s let me know that I can ask her any questions, which is really nice especially since everything has been very new at uni, it’s nice to have another point of contact. ”
Empower more Changemakers next year? Support our Bursary Fundraiser
Could you donate towards our Bursary Fund to help support a young women from a disadvantaged background to join our Catalyst Bootcamp and Mentoring Programme next year?
As we have set up a fundraiser on the Local Giving platform which enables you to donate any amount you like from as little as £1 and we can then claim Gift Aid on that, from UK taxpayers, which means your donation is worth an additional 25p for each pound you give.
Also as a gift to us for joining, Local Giving are giving £200 of match funding on one off donations via this link! https://localgiving.org/donation/catalyse-change-cic’
Thank you so much for your support and we look forward to our journey together next year. In the meantime we would like to wish you a wonderful Christmas and a healthy, happy New Year.
For more information about our work visit www.catalysechange.com and please do follow us on social media, we are on FB/ Insta as catalysechange/ and twitter as @CatalyseCh All queries contact Traci Lewis traci@catalysechange.com
