Young WARRIOR
WOMAN PROGRAM
The Warrior Woman Foundation provides holistic evidence-based support programs for under-represented vulnerable young Australian women. Our flagship program, the YOUNG WARRIOR WOMAN PROGRAM is a mentoring and psycho-educational program which provides connection, life skills education, and mental health support. Based on the Self Determination Theory, the Young Warrior Woman Program is designed to foster autonomy and financial independence.
We call our Mentees “YOUNG WARRIORS“. Each Young Warrior is supported by a group of Mentors who we call “WISE WARRIORS”. These are caring, stable, and positive female role models from the local community who provide support, guidance and impart the wisdom of life experience.
As an additional layer of support, our Young Warriors are supported by a group of peers who we call “KINDRED WARRIORS”. These are young women who have life experience in foster/state care and have successfully transitioned into adulthood. Our Kindred Warriors bring real life stories of first-hand experience and provide valuable advice on how to navigate a successful transition into adulthood.
Together the Mentors and Mentees attend an intensive and structured six-month program consisting of weekly life skills education workshops, transformative presentations by inspirational speakers who have overcome personal adversity, and psycho-educational group therapy sessions. Additionally, each young woman participates in weekly one-on-one mentoring sessions. Meetings will take place through the MentorPro portal/app (a safe and monitored method to connect). Mentors undergo thorough screening and intensive training prior to meeting their Mentees.
Program Delivery Strategy
Connection
We provide a safe and welcoming space for young women to share, learn, heal and grow. Each young woman is connected with a mentor as well as a network of diverse community-minded women who provide ongoing support and share their life experiences, resources, and opportunities:
- Connection to a safe, stable, and socially inclusive network of female role models to turn to for advice and ongoing support for the duration of the six-month program.
- Connection to a non-judgmental group of young women who are facing similar challenges.
- Connection to Kindred Warrior Peers, young women who have experienced challenges in life and have gone on to achieve life success.
- Weekly one-to-one mentoring sessions with a safe Mentor.
life skills education
We teach young women the life skills they need to succeed in everyday life. Our “teach a young woman to fish” approach gives them support and guidance at every step, knowing that true empowerment comes from them learning to do things for themselves. In particular, we focus on financial literacy and job readiness:
- Life-skills workshops to build self-reliance.
- A six-week Financial Literacy program (in partnership with MoneyGirl).
- A Job Readiness program.
- Assistance in gaining and retaining meaningful employment.
mental health support
Many young women experience trauma which negatively impacts their confidence, self-esteem and self-worth. We support and nurture the trauma healing process in safe psycho-educational workshops facilitated by experts. In these sessions, young women learn to engage with self-compassion, and to soften and contain threat-based emotions, such as fear and anxiety, anger, shame and self-criticism.
OUTCOMES OF THE YOUNG WARRIOR WOMAN PROGRAM
After the Program, our Young Warriors will have achieved/or have the knowledge and skills to achieve the following:
