Valentia Partners is delighted to announce that the firm has entered into a partnership with The Girls’ Network.
The Girls’ Network was started to free young women from the pressure to conform to strict social norms, help girls to build up confidence and self-belief – and to provide strong, professional, female role models within their networks.
During their time teaching in North London, founders Charly Young and Becca Dean noticed the barriers facing girls in their schools and they set out to do something about it. The Girls’ Network is a UK charity that promotes the interests of young women from disadvantaged backgrounds up and down the country. The charity principally focuses on its mentoring scheme, which provides one-to-one mentoring to more than 1000 young women each year, whilst also providing careers and education focused workshops helping to expose girls to career options outside of those they would encounter otherwise. Additionally the charity operates an Alumni Network for mentors and mentees, allowing the women involved to provide one another with mutual support and guidance, as well as highlighting opportunities to the community.
Their latest findings taken just before the pandemic showed that of the girls engaged in the mentoring programme 96% of the girls said mentoring had improved their confidence, 73% said mentoring helped them focus more at school, 98% of girls believed their mentor helped them feel more positive about the future and finally 74% of girls used their mentor as a source of support outside of sessions. Showing the clear positive impact and empowering nature this is having on the lives of young women from some of the least advantaged backgrounds.
This partnership results from a conversation between Valentia staff where we discussed how difficult the COVID-19 pandemic period had been; reflecting that irrespective of how unsettling it had been for us, it would have been so much harder for young people finishing college or starting a career. The firm set a goal to identify ways to use our funds and skills in the professional environment for the benefit of those in that challenging position.
As a firm, we also acknowledge that Financial Services and Consulting has historically been male dominated – something attributable to historic imbalance, rather than having any basis in capability. Even today, we struggle to attract the same volume of applications female graduates entering the industry. We want both Financial Services and Consulting to be an industry that attracts and recognises talent irrespective of gender, race, age, sexual orientation, or social class and are committed to making that change through this initiative and others to come.
In addition to providing funding, Valentia Partners has kicked off a multi-faceted partnership with The Girls’ Network aimed at leveraging the skills and network that Valentia has for the benefit of the young women supported by the charity.
For more information about the work that we’re doing with The Girls’ Network, or if you would like to get involved in some way, please reach out to any of the Valentia leadership.
