#BeeWell
Partnering with #BeeWell to give girls a space to explore challenges like loneliness and low confidence and design their own solutions. Girls led a range of creative projects, from events to fundraising.
In July 2024, Girlguiding launched a 7 month pilot in partnership with youth centred programme #BeeWell. This project worked with 47 girls across 3 schools in Hampshire, supporting them to explore challenges they face and design their own solutions.
The #BeeWell programme works with young people, secondary schools and partners to understand what’s impacting young people’s wellbeing, and identify ways to improve it. Each year, they run a large scale mental health and wellbeing survey across Greater Manchester, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton.
The 3 schools involved in this pilot had all taken part in the survey. Their data highlighted that girls were struggling with issues like loneliness, low confidence and low self-esteem. These insights shaped the direction of the pilot and ensured that we were responding directly to girls’ needs.
'It was great to get together and do something big for other people - just us girls.' - Student
Co-creating and delivering the sessions
2 schools used in-house facilitators, while Girlguiding provided an external freelance facilitator for the third. All facilitators collaborated closely with the girls, school staff, #BeeWell and the Girlguiding project coordinator to co-create sessions that reflected girls’ ideas, priorities and lived experiences.
Facilitators and girls worked side-by-side to shape each session.
Activities included:
- Mapping emotions, to help girls identify and express how they feel.
- Brainstorming project ideas, to encourage creative thinking and give girls ownership over the direction of the activities.
- Exploring anxiety, to increase understanding of difficult feelings and build coping strategies.
With support from their facilitator, girls across the 3 schools designed and delivered a range of enrichment activities designed to build their confidence, improve their wellbeing and help them to connect with others.
Their projects included:
- Selling rose bouquets for International Women’s Day.
- Organising a non-uniform day at their school.
- Running a strawberries and cream stall.
- Hosting a music event and taking charge of photography for the day.
- Revamping and running the school shop for Easter.
- Fundraising for wellbeing week.
The girls led every stage of each project, from generating ideas and planning and delivery to reflecting on what they learned and what they'd change next time.
These activities gave girls the chance to develop their leadership skills, collaborate and make a real impact.
Outcomes and impact on girls
Girls’ feedback demonstrates the power of creating girl-only, girl-led spaces. Every girl who took part told us the workshops were fun and that they valued having sessions designed specifically for girls. Almost all said they felt safe to ask questions, share their opinions and try out new ideas, and that the sessions had improved their wellbeing. Many girls told us the sessions had helped build their confidence.
By combining data-driven insights from the #BeeWell survey with girl voice-led strategies, we helped girls build confidence, develop new skills and take meaningful action in their school communities.
This pilot also had a big impact on the facilitators involved, giving them the opportunity to make a real difference while supporting young people.
'I love this project. It's a breath of fresh air to be able to do this with the girls. I've seen change in the girls that I don't think we would ever be able to get in the classroom. It’s an invaluable project that more girls should have the opportunity to do.' - Facilitator
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