The YWCA of Wellington and Hutt Valley is committed to helping young women develop into leaders who can inspire and positively influence those around them.

The YWCA Discover™ programme helps build confident young women who have the skills to realise their own potential, as well as inspiring and influencing others around them.

Discover™ works with young women in Years 12 and 13 over an 18 month period.  These young women have the opportunity to be mentored by women in the local community.  Mentors offer practical assistance and actively encourage mentees to broaden their horizons, embrace new challenges, set and achieve goals.

The Discover™ Programme was created as a result of a study commissioned by the YWCA of Wellington and Hutt Valley during 2005-06 amongst young women in the Wellington region. The outcome of this study was that young women in the Wellington area experienced a sense of disconnectedness from services and had limited access to career information and mentors. In response to this, the Wellington YWCA board (which includes young women) developed Discover™, a leadership mentoring programme for young women, by young women.

Currently the programme is working with young women from Wellington East Girls College and this will continue in the new year due to the demand and need for the programme.

Communities require well rounded young people who have a sense of purpose, goals to strive for and a want to give back to their community, people who will develop into leaders who will pave the way for the next generation.

The Discover™ programme develops:

Positive Role Models - To provide positive role models to impressionable young women at a time in their life when they are making decisions about their future and have considerable pressure on them to succeed.

Community Spirit – Teaching the women the importance of giving something back to their community.

Resilience – Supporting the women in their strive for excellence and assisting them to develop their own resilience.

Mentors - Demonstrating a long term commitment to a career or a community cause.
 
Respect - Accepting and respectful of individual differences.

Each young woman will take the skills they have learnt and use these to the benefit of their family, school and community.

Activities and workshops have taken place throughout the year for students to attend, and the programme is held outside school hours. Students are not required to miss school to be involved in the programme.

One of the projects undertaken during the programme was community based.  The young women were divided into two groups and asked to create a community project for them to complete within a number of weeks.  

The women were supported by their mentors, the Discover™ programme Manager and their school, however were completely in control of their actions.  The two projects were:
• Supplying books and other resource to the Miramar South Primary School Library;
• Raising the awareness ‘Positive Women Inc’ – a support organisation for women and families living with HIV and AIDS.

My Personal Experience...

It has been a privilege to be involved with the Discover™ programme and be invited into a young woman's life to share her goals, fears, challenges and successes.

My mentee has inspired me by her drive, perseverance, determination and willingness to give anything a go.  Her goal of making the finals of the school speech contest to overcome her fear of public speaking, and the realisation of that goal by winning the contest encouraged me to further my own public speaking.  I accepted an opportunity to speak at Victoria University to Management 101 students. 

I know my mentee is going to achieve great things in her life and be an inspiration to many more people along the way.

My thanks to Stacey my mentee and Lili the Discover™ Programme Manager for the opportunity to participate in the mentor programme.