Empowering Young Women - A Community Vision

CFUW BELLEVILLE AND DISTRICT

EDUCATION and ADVOCACY: SPRING FORUM 2017

This year the Spring Forum Committee is planning a more interactive event on the theme of “EmpoweringYoung Women-A Community Vision”.

The Vision of CFUW National looks to “a world where [women have] equal opportunities for leadership, employment, income, education, careers and the ability to maximize potential”. This is what an empowered woman enjoys. What does “empowerment” look like in a teenage girl in Belleville Ontario? What influences conspire to undermine confidence and focus, even in the young woman who goes on to higher education?

What about the young woman who is not able to overcome them? How does this impact the community at large? How is the community responding at present? Where are the gaps? What could be done by thinking “outside the box”?

High school guidance counsellors have offered the Spring Forum Committee advice and support. We have consulted with the YMCA, The Learning Foundation, the Canadian Mental Health Association, and more. Our suggestion of this topic has met with enthusiasm from all we approach. Our speakers come from organizations which have hands -on experience with these questions. They will inform and stimulate discussion. We hope the audience will include many more individuals who are engaged in the field, together with our CFUW Belleville members and their guests. After the speakers, there will be an opportunity to take part in small discussion groups over coffee and muffins. Perhaps these will generate positive ideas for joint follow-up.

The Spring Forum will take place on Saturday April 1 at the Maranatha Church, 100 College St. West in Belleville, starting at 9:30 and ending at noon hour.

Please come.  Please bring your daughter, your colleague or your neighbour.    We are all part of this vision.