Discovering young women leaders

Rosita Vai performing at the opening for the YWCA Discover™ leadership programme at the NZ Portrait Gallery.

A new mentoring programme to help young women reach their full potential is an exciting step towards building a capable new generation of leaders, says Wellington YWCA president Lynell Tuffery.

The Wellington YWCA’s Discover™ programme works with young women in years 12 and 13 over an 18 month period, in which participants are offered free, one-on-one mentoring by older women.

These mentors offer practical assistance and actively encourage mentees to broaden their horizons, embrace new challenges, set and achieve goals.

Discover™ was launched last month at the NZ Portrait Gallery in an event hosted by YWCA ambassador Avenal McKinnon.

Young women from Wellington East Girls College are the first to benefit from Discover™, and the YWCA plans to roll the programme out to other schools from next year.

“With the Discover™ programme, we want to help young women become confident and develop the skills to realise their own potential, as well as inspiring and influencing others around them,” says Ms Tuffery.

Ms Tuffery says the programme enables young Wellington women from a wide range of backgrounds to get access to a unique and accessible mentoring programme that will equip them with the leadership skills to have a positive impact within the communities they live in.

Wellington East Girls College mentee Emily Evers-Luck says, “I think the programme so far has helped me in so many ways such as learning to value what’s important to myself and others.”