A group of inspirational women have created a safe space within Renfrewshire.
The programme – entitled Community Places and Community Spaces – was created by the Young Women Lead (YWL).
The group of leading ladies realised there was a need for more safe spaces in the community.
However, instead of creating a short-term community space, they decided to showcase the wonderful areas and places that already exist in Renfrewshire.
They created an interactive map and directory of community organisations within the area.
Laurie Duffy, national programmes coordinator of YWL, said: “The programme is a community-based one for young people across Renfrewshire. We did a call-out and we had a group of young people come to us.
“The point of the programme was to have young people come together and identify something that they are passionate about within their own community.
"After a series of workshops and Zoom calls, they all came to the conclusion that they were all really about community provision and what is available in the community.”
Those who attended the programme were aged between 16 and 30 and they worked together to come up with their own logo, name and design their website.
They would often meet at the Paisley YMCA or the Kairos space and the group worked together to get the project up and running in the space of six months.
The age difference between the ladies was no hurdle and they worked together to show what young people can do.
Laurie added: “They have created this amazing tool and I think the best thing about it is it has come from young people. It is something they have identified as necessary – they pulled together as a team to create everything themselves.
“When you bring a group of young people aged between 16 and 30 it is such a massive jump in age. But everyone wanted to be there because they wanted to be there regardless of their age. I think that is something that allows that confidence to grow because you listened to.”
For more information on the group, visit www.communityplacescommunityspaces.com/
Young Women Lead work alongside young women to create change and they work in different areas across the country.
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