Do you want to create a fairer world for every child? Are you passionate about equality for girls and young women? Do you have a plan to put your idealism into action?

Child Friendly Cardiff, which is driving the city’s ambition to be recognised as a UNICEF Child Friendly City, has joined forces with Plan UK (Wales) to fund new projects aimed at doing just that.

The Young Changemaker Grants are worth up to £1,000 and are offered to young people aged 13-24 and organisations working with young people.

The new Cardiff grants aims to provide opportunities for young people to:

Gain confidence, experience in project and budget management, and the ability to influence others in a safe environment
Receive training and support to develop skills in planning, finance and social action
Have their voices heard and see themselves recognised as positive agents of change, and
Bring about positive change for themselves and in the lives of girls in Wales concerning issues that constrain their rights.

From research carried out by Plan UK in Wales, it’s clear that girls here feel their rights are not being respected. They:

Are fed up and frustrated with empty words of ‘female empowerment’
Care deeply about political issues, but spoke of feeling unheard in politics and being bullied for identifying as feminists
Feel sexism and harassment in school is rife, and
Don’t feel safe in public.

Leah, 17, said in a report arising from the research: “When a girl is harassed or sexually assaulted, they’re not asked ‘How are you doing?’ They’re asked what they’re wearing and it’s so disrespectful because it doesn’t matter what we were wearing.”

Around Wales, Young Changemaker grants are already having an effect. In Swansea, a group of young people used their grant to recruit more girls into a skatepark project; in Neath Port Talbot, it has helped to fund a ‘Safe Spaces’ project to educate boys and others on girls’ experience of street harassment and other forms of abuse; and in Newport, it has helped a 16-year-old boy publish a collection of short poems inspired by the bullying and hate he sees directed at women and girls on social media.

Cllr Sarah Merry, Cardiff Council’s deputy leader and the Cabinet member responsible for Child Friendly Cardiff, said: “We know that girls and young people are facing a number of challenges that can hold them back in school, careers, everyday life and preventing them from just being who they are.

“We want every young person to achieve their potential but we know that young people, girls in particular, can face many challenges in their lives that stop that. I am very excited that with Plan we will be listening to the ideas of young people themselves on how to make a difference”

Her colleague, Cllr Julie Sangani, the Cabinet member for Tackling Equality, added: “We are committed to ensuring that girls’ rights are upheld and that the voices of young people and those working with them are at the heart of decisions that affect their lives.

“Joining Plan UK (Wales) in offering these grants means girls and young people will be able to put their ideas into action and make a real difference in their fight for equality.”

How to apply for a grant

Plan UK (Wales) and Child Friendly Cardiff are particularly interested in ideas that:

Empower young people to tackle gender inequalities in Cardiff
Raise awareness of issues faced by girls and young women in Cardiff
Come from young people who identify as part of the LGBTQI+, BAME, Gypsy Roma communities, who are young carers, disabled young people, survivors or any other groups who experience oppression.

You must also:

Be aged between 13 and 24
Have a responsible adult on the project if you are under 16
Be a project led by young people (organisations can apply as a source of support to the young people leading the project)
Ensure the project benefits Cardiff
Complete it by April 2024 at the latest.

To apply, visit the Child Friendly Cardiff website here https://www.childfriendlycardiff.co.uk/2023/07/plan-uk-young-changemaker-grant/ and you can either complete the written application via on online form or record yourself answering the questions and send that to [email protected]

The deadline for entries is Friday, September 22.