Women have always gathered together in the understanding there is power in community.

To celebrate the theme for this year’s International Women’s Day, Balance For Better, The Benevolent Society, Glebe Youth Service and the City of Sydney, through funding from NSW Women’s Week, partnered to deliver an afternoon of fun, art and connection for young women.

The Strong Women, Strong Communities event supported young women to see the importance of gathering together, boosting their self-esteem and enabling a better understanding of their personal strengths.

Held at Glebe Town Hall, the event brought together young women from Girls Zone, a girls support program run by the Glebe Youth Service, and iMatter, a Benevolent Society mentoring program in Claymore. iMatter mentors 7-8-year-old girls to help meet social and emotional needs, with participants meeting for weekly activities in school terms, and excursions and catch-ups in the school holidays.

VIPs on the day included local artist Aunty Kathy Farrawell, photographer Aunty Barb McGrady, Jess Scully, City of Sydney Councillor, and Louise Green representing the Allira Committee which funds iMatter.

The fun really began with the marshmallow exercise: the girls were challenged to build the tallest freestanding structure in 15 minutes – with just 20 sticks of spaghetti, 10 toothpicks, one marshmallow, one metre of masking tape, one metre of string, scissors and a measuring tape. It was a great laugh for all involved!

The next activity, led by Aunty Kathy Farrawell, was a creative project built on strengths. The girls wrote down their strengths directly onto Aunty Kathy’s NAIDOC day artwork titled Because of her, we can. Aunty Kathy made a stencil with a profile of each girl’s face and painted them on to one of her artworks.

The young women also had an opportunity to meet female community leaders, bringing an awareness of their own potential and providing the older women with an opportunity to connect with young people and share their knowledge.