Helping Girls Build Confidence Through Trust and Connection: A Link Worker Reflection

At the recent Women of the Year awards, our CEO Louisa Mitchell spotlighted the rising mental health challenges facing young girls today. In this reflection, one of our Link Workers shares how early, relationship-based support is helping girls find their confidence and sense of belonging.

“Throughout my four years as an AllChild Link Worker in a secondary school, I have become aware of lots of the challenges facing young people today. Within these challenges, I found that some were particularly prevalent for the young girls within the cohorts I worked with. In my experience, amongst the challenges facing young girls, the most common ones were: low self-esteem, low confidence, challenges around body image, social anxiety, navigating friendships in school and online, and the ever-evolving pressures surrounding social media usage. For many girls at school, these challenges can be all the more difficult when also navigating and managing their own special educational needs.

For me as a female Link Worker, building that trusted relationship with the girls on my cohort has been essential in supporting them with the challenges listed above. This trusted relationship has been important as it enabled me to share my own experiences with them (where appropriate) and reassure them that some of the things they are going through are relatable and "normal”. This relationship also provided a safe space for them to talk through and process challenges which may be more specific to them, and know they are being listened to and heard. For some young girls I worked with, this relationship provided a non-judgmental and listening ear, and the trust built here enabled them to feel both informed and supported to access further support from other services when needed.

As part of their AllChild programme, young girls on my cohorts were also able to access new opportunities which focused on their strengths. These strengths-based activities included doing things like drama, art and sports. In these sessions, young people could develop and hone their strengths, feel supported by facilitators who were experts in these areas and feel championed and celebrated by their peers. This was a powerful way to build confidence and self-esteem, whilst also improving peer relationships and a sense of belonging."

As this reflection shows, when we invest time and trust in young people we help them build the confidence to face challenges and embrace new possibilities. That’s what AllChild is all about: empowering every child to flourish, in school and beyond.

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