As part of IWDA’s Global Youth Impact leadership program participants complete a Social Justice Action Plan (SJAP) in their local school or community.

This is an opportunity for participants to address an issue that is important to them (such as poverty, the environment or human rights) in their community. SJAP’s may involve raising awareness of an issue, encouraging debate, developing resources for others to use or inspiring other young women to get involved and make a difference.

During 2009, a group of passionate, intelligent and driven young women participated in the first Global Youth Impact (GYI) program.

Participants stepped outside of their comfort zones and were empowered to challenge global inequalities and social justice issues. 

All the participants worked to enhance their leadership qualities, increase their confidence and skills to speak out on issues of importance to them, develop an increased understanding and commitment to issues facing women both locally and globally, broaden their understanding of different models of development; increase their awareness of alternative career paths, and be inspired to make a difference in what is important to them!

Some examples of their achievements are:

Jordi

Jordi is passionate about Fair Trade and wanted to raise awareness about the issues. She was able to source a distributor of Fair Trade chocolate at a fraction of the retail cost and lobbied her local greengrocer to sell the product. After a trail of two weeks, not only had the product sold out, a newspaper article was written about Jordi’s SJAP.  

Samantha

Samantha tackled the difficult issue of violence against women.  Combining her extensive research with the guidance of her mentor, Samantha was able to facilitate a workshop that utilised the skills she had learnt at camp and raise awareness of violence against women among her peers. She also invited a self-defense teacher to demonstrate some useful maneuvers  to the class. 

Petra

Petra put her creativity to use when she developed an inspiring photography exhibition at her local council building. Petra’s SJAP put the spotlight on inspiring women in her local community from diverse backgrounds. She wanted to celebrate the achievements of everyday women and deconstruct gender stereotypes.