This Sunday marks the start of the second edition of the Edinburgh Girls Project, when girls interested in the project will have the chance to receive a sneak-peak of what the project will entail in a taster session.
EPIC Scotland’s Programme Officer and Analyst Simen Jordsmyr Holm and Annamieke (Mika) Cook, who will be delivering the project, went through the final details of the taster session this Tuesday. In the taster session, Mika will give girls interested in the project an idea of what they will be doing in the different sessions. They will also receive some information about the wider work of EPIC and undertake some fun icebreaker activities. As well as this, the taster session will touch upon the topic of healthy eating, which is one of the core topics of the project. The girls will be able to discuss the topic and there will even be some healthy snacks to illustrate how they can eat more healthily!
The second running of the Edinburgh Girls Project has received a funding of £1,210 from the Ponton House Trust and takes place in the Edinburgh Central Mosque. It is run in cooperation with the Muslim Women’s Association of Edinburgh and the target group this time is Muslim teenage girls.
From 21 January to 4 March, they will undergo six sessions in which they will explore different topics related to physical and emotional well-being, as well as fostering the building of peer support networks. The topics of the six sessions are physical activity, relaxation and stress relief, relationships and communication skills, self-esteem, gender stereotypes and healthy eating. There will also be a seventh and final session on 11 March, which will be a round-up of the project.
The Edinburgh Girls Project was run for the first time in the spring last year in collaboration with the WHALE Arts Centre in Western Hailes, Edinburgh. The first running of the project followed roughly the same structure but the participants were slightly younger than the target group in the second edition of the project. However, it was a success, and EPIC are now looking forward to starting the project in another environment!