New Mentoring Unit – ‘Identity’ – Created in Light of the BLM Movement

In recent weeks, our mentors have been creating a unit on ‘Identity’ in light of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Our young people have been hurting after hearing of and witnessing the murder of George Floyd. With immediate access to news online, nearly all of them have seen the footage of his arrest.

Our girls and young women wanted to share their thoughts and feelings with someone they could trust, as they felt confused, angered, and saddened by the tragic loss of a life due to racism. So our mentoring team created a safe, virtual space for them via Zoom where they could express themselves among people they knew would not judge them, but would listen, reassure and educate.

One of our participants – Daniella, aged 16 – wrote and performed a poem called ‘Prisoner’ in one of these Zoom sessions.

In this poem she speaks of what it is like growing up black in East London and the racism she has experienced in her young life. You can listen to Daniella’s poem below:

Post COVID19, Goals4Girls will campaign – in each of the schools our mentoring and football development programmes are delivered – to redress the current education system re-systemic racism, intersectionality and oppression experienced by our young people.

As a start, we have created a G4G Book Club where we recommend books, poems, spoken word pieces created by black authors, about black experiences. You can find our recommendations here.

As a black owned organisation, with 82% of our participants also being black, we are here to support our Goals4Girls family in ensuring they are heard, and that they feel their lives more than ‘matter’ to us and society.

We are hoping to raise £25,000 to ensure these mentor sessions and our work on intersectionality, racism and oppression are continued during the summer – a first in the history of Goals4Girls – and are fully resourced for the next academic year (from September 2020).

The funds will go towards developing our newly established unit on ‘Identity’, stationery for our young people to complete tasks at home without barriers, potential laptops, the cost of therapeutic mentoring and various other necessities to ensure the development of our young people during this unsettling time.

To read the complete financial breakdown, and to donate to our fundraising campaign, please check out our GoFundMe page. Please share with those you think would be willing to contribute to our programme.

Remember, ‘it starts with you, and continues with her’.