Taking Back Power Blog

Our Young Women's Advisory Group (YWAG) contributed to Taking back power: Young women reflect on exploitation, support, and regaining their agency. This was in collaboration with the Alliance for Youth Justice in support of their new briefing Exploited to exploiter? Preventing the unjust criminalisation of victims of child criminal exploitation in the transition to adulthood.

The YWAG shared reflections on young women's experiences of criminal exploitation and how professionals can better support them. Below, YWAG member Dami shares her experience of the process.

Looking back at your involvement, what are you most pleased you did or said while contributing to the blog?

I am most proud of being able to use my lived experience to contribute to this piece of work. I'm especially pleased that I was able to talk about how racial bias affects how young women are supported as I feel that this is a topic not spoken enough about but also being able to talk about what professionals can do to build trust with young women as it is important that young women are involved in their care.

What difference did it make for you to take part and share your perspective?

It made me feel important and empowered like I was a part something bigger that will help young women in the future. It also made me feel hopeful that professionals that work with young women may read this and really try to understand what young women go through and change how they approach young women.

What qualities or strengths of yours showed up when you were involved in this project?

I think one of my strengths is being able to be reflective and I think this showed up in this project as I was able to use my lived experience to provide insight and think back to what I would've liked to experience when I was 18. I also think me being empathetic showed up in this project as with every question I was thinking about what young women would like to change and being able to put myself in their shoes when responding even if I haven't gone through the exact same scenarios as the question provided.

When you imagine someone reading the blog, what do you hope they might think, feel, or do differently?

I hope that they reflect on their ways of work and think about if it has actually been beneficial for young women. I also hope they start to think about how complex many young women's lives are and start to take time to really get to know the young women they work with. I hope they feel like they've learnt something and also feel empowered to be able to make changes based on the responses.

If the blog has the best possible impact, what would that look like for you and for other young women in similar situations?

The best outcome for this blog would be for professionals to value young women's voices and hear us in all environments. It would also look like more young women being able to access resources and services quickly before their situations become worse and being able to become more resilient and thrive in their lives based on the help from those resources. It would look like young women feeling like they can advocate for themselves and knowing that they are important and cared for.

-Dami, Abianda Young Women's Advisory Group member