Wirral council supports IWD to reflect and give back to local community

 July 08, 2019

Giving back to women and girls in the local community was a major focus of Wirral council's International Women's Day activity.

One of the council's missions was to encourage everyone to give back to their local community and forge a #BalanceForBetter in Wirral. They wanted women in Wirral to find balance in their lives through making use of volunteering days to give back to women and girls in the community in need of help.

To celebrate exactly one year of Wirral council's Women into Leadership Network that launched back on International Women's Day 2018, the council decided to host an even bigger and better event this year. The network had built a large following and gained momentum over the year addressing aspects like impostor syndrome, professional persona and resilience. The council wanted to take the opportunity to bring everyone together to celebrate the progress it had made over its first year. 

Watch the video here.

A #BalanceForBetter ice breaker and photo opportunity

The council's Director of Finance opened the event and got everyone up on their feet for a photo opportunity and a great ice breaker. On arrival, everyone had been given a letter and was asked to arrange themselves to spell out the #BalanceForBetter campaign theme. 

Sharing personal stories from the council's senior leaders

Wirral council takes International Women's Day very seriously and the Council secured its most senior leaders to speak at the event sharing some very personal stories. As an organisation, the council doesn't often get the chance to gather together and have such important conversations so this was a very engaging aspect for all involved.

The council also introduced their Head of Intelligence who spoke about the biggest challenges women in the borough are facing, demographically what these issues look like and how much women earn in general compared to men. She touched on the challenges for young girls including societal pressures and social media. This gave some context and highlighted key areas where attendees could make a difference for those vulnerable women and girls in the borough.

"Sometimes if we look at the huge task of creating a balanced world it seems impossible for us to have any meaningful impact. We decided to Wirral-ise the day to help people see that we all have the power to have an impact and if everyone across the world did the same thing then we would have a better, more balanced world," said a Council representative, HR Graduate Rhiannon Jones.

Inspired by The Girls' Network and Tomorrow's Women

Wirral Borough Council also hosted many stalls that attendees could browse through including a local leisure centre, Lifelong Learning, Tomorrow's Women.

A network that supports disadvantaged girls, The Girl’s Network, was also present. Their mission is to inspire and empower girls from the least advantaged communities by connecting them with a mentor and a network of professional female role models. Many delegates signed up to become a mentor which really demonstrates how inspired everyone was to give back to the local community.

The council also welcomed Tomorrow's Women Wirral, a charity for any adult woman 18+ to access support, interventions and learning opportunities to make positive lifestyle changes, whose work is supported by local volunteers. They also encouraged and inspired many of the audience to give back to Tomorrow's Women and help the women in the local community. 

After hearing from Tomorrow's Women Wirral and The Girls' Network, attendees felt inspired to help out, volunteer time and bring a #BalanceForBetter to their part of the world.

The hard hitting messages from Tomorrow's Women and The Girls' Network, accompanied by the instant solution of using available volunteering time to give back to local girls and women, was particularly effective as it allowed the audience to feel inspired and get involved. It demonstrated that there is never too small an impact to make and focusing it around the local area is a great first step to forging a balanced world.