Helmet, Hijabs & Hair

Helmet Hijabs and Hair - By Hana Ziolek

International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. It has happened every year since 1911

Every year across the globe people come together to celebrate women’s achievements, or rally for women’s equality. International Women’s Day should act as a reminder for all of us to commit to elevating and empowering all women, every day. The campaign theme for International Women’s Day 2021 is #ChooseToChallenge and more information can be found here: https://www.internationalwomensday. com/About

Sustrans Midlands & East is proud to be playing its part in championing these objectives as an employer and as a walking and cycling champion. So we will be running a series of activities from 5-8 March to encourage and empower women of ALL backgrounds to think about cycling as an option for them. We will acknowledge women of African, Caribbean, Middle Eastern and South Asian heritage who are currently the least represented in the cycling world.

What is #HelmetsHijabsandHair then?

• #HelmetHijabsandHair is a competition that aims to address some of the barriers to cycling.

Its purpose is to encourage women of ALL backgrounds to think about cycling as an option for them. The aim is to increase the confidence and esteem, especially of young women, to cycle with a helmet if they want to, including cycling to school.

• The idea for the project sprang from a conversation with a participant in a Young Women’s group run by After 18, which supports young refugees. This young woman enjoys cycling; loves styling her hair in many different styles; understands and agrees with her foster Mum’s view that she should always wear a helmet when cycling. Yet, she could not envisage travelling to sixth-form College on her bike because she likes to look stylish when attending college and is shy to wear the hairstyle at college that she usually wears with her cycle helmet.

• The Project fits in perfectly with this year’s IWD theme and will be listed on the International

Women’s Day website. International Women’s

Day weekend will provide the launch setting for the campaign. Some of the young people and other partners involved in the project have been involved in the design of specific promotional materials and communications.

What do we hope to achieve?

• We want to help to increase the confidence and esteem, especially of young women, to cycle with a helmet if they want to, including cycling to school. In the context of the recent surge in interest in voices for change within the Black Lives Matter movement and beyond, there is an opportunity to foster increased pride and confidence in young

Black women pushing beyond stereotypes. • We want to increase the confidence of schoolaged young people, especially young women of African, Caribbean, South Asian and Middle

Eastern heritage, to choose to cycle more and more often, including journeys to school and college. • The purpose of our activities is to encourage women of ALL backgrounds to think about cycling as an option for them.

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What will we be doing?

We will run a social media campaign, host a webinar and take part in a ‘newsroom’ event.

More Information

Twitter: @SustransEMids @SustransWMids Facebook: /sustransEmids/sustransWestMidlands/

Instagram: @sustrans

Nottingham connected Covid-19 Support Work 29 Tackling Emerging Threats to Children (TETC) & School Health Hub Newsletter: February 2021 Edition - By Sarah Lee

Many moons ago when I was a teenager in the days when we listened to vinyl, one of my favourite albums was by the artist George Benson. Little did I know it then, but one of those tracks also became the anthem which my 16 year old daughter now blasts out whenever she is in the shower and has claimed as her favourite too, (albeit she prefers the Whitney version).

In spite of listening to the lyrics for well over 30 years, I confess that I’m still working on internalising the key message of the song “Learning to love yourself, it is the greatest love of all”, but the various lockdowns have certainly encouraged me to practice kindness and selfcare in a way that I haven’t done before.

I am glad that my daughter loves the song and somehow, I think she has recognised the importance of the lyric at a much earlier point of her development than I.

I watch with pride as I see her show kindness to others in her every day deeds and actions, but what impresses me more is that she knows that she has to spend time taking care of herself; that she is worthy of the investment of time and attention; that it doesn’t make her selfish; that it makes her better placed to give of herself to others because she’s OK with who she is and she is nourished with self-love.

As children grow into adolescents, under pressure to “fit in”, sometimes they forget to be their own best friends and stay true to who they are in their hearts. Wouldn’t it be powerful if before they left primary school, we could strengthen their love of self so that the doubts and insecurities which plague many as they go through secondary school, were quietened?

Wouldn’t it be great if each of us at every stage of life, were encouraged to embrace our quirkiness, our unique personalities and individuality, rather than succumb to the pressure to conform and the need to please or impress others?

The RSHE curriculum puts relationships front and centre. Let’s put the relationship with self at the heart of what we teach as part of this. Knowing, accepting and liking who we are makes us stronger, and in turn, makes us kinder to others. What will you do for yourself today to show a little self-love?

Read Full article here - shorturl.at/hqEFQ

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