Hello, I’m Katie, the lead volunteer for girl voice! I’ve been involved in Girlguiding since I was a Brownie and had lots of opportunities to experience what guiding has to offer. I went away on camps and had a big adventure to Guernsey with 100 Guides when I was 12. I fondly remember how supportive and youth-led my units were, preparing us to take on more leadership roles. My Ranger unit was very youth-led, we made our own unit rules “be nice, be legal and light fires”, and had lots of social activities.

I first got involved in advocacy when I was 15. I knew that I was a feminist, but didn’t have anywhere to channel that energy until the opportunity to be an Advocate with Girlguiding UK came up. This was my first advocacy role and my first experience of Girlguiding at a national level. I was an Advocate alongside 2 other girls from Scotland and we’re still friends 10 years on! During my time as an Advocate, we campaigned for an end to sexual harassment in schools, RSHP reform (UK-wide and in Scotland), and were heavily involved in campaigning for period dignity. This has resulted in real policy change, especially in Scotland with our Period Products (Free Provision) Act 2021.

After my time as an Advocate, I joined the First Minister’s National Advisory Council for Women and Girls as a representative for Girlguiding Scotland. During my 3 years, I gave advice to the First Minister on how Scotland can be a beacon of gender equality. As a young person on the council, I made sure that the voices of girls and young women were reflected in the council, ensuring that a diverse range of girls and young women’s experiences of inequality were included. I met some incredible women in this role, and the experience made me want to do this work full time for my career.

I applied for the role of lead volunteer for girl voice after some encouragement. I’ve now been in post for 3 years and lead a team of volunteers, working alongside staff, to embed youth voice across the organisation.

So far, our work has been focused on how we can elevate girls’ voices externally through our Speak Out, Scottish Youth Parliament and National Advisory Council for Women and Girls projects. I’m so proud of these projects and what they have achieved.

Our last Speak Out campaign, Own Our Zone, created tangible policy change through the Scottish Government’s Equally Safe delivery plan. The section referencing safe play spaces for girls is a direct result of the Speak Out campaign. This was a huge success for the Speak Out Champions, as it’s unusual for a campaign of this size to make such a significant impact.

We’re lucky to have 2 super engaged Members of the Scottish Youth Parliament, who are preparing a Motion for the next Scottish Youth Parliament Sitting, ensuring that our members have a formal seat at the table in youth politics and making our members’ voices heard.

I also love supporting Amanda Amaeshi, our current representative on the National Advisory Council for Women and Girls, to hold the government to account on issues impacting equality for girls and young women.

We know how important youth social action is and through our girl voice projects we want to make Girlguiding Scotland’s youth social action visible and impactful. We know that young people use a variety of public services, so they need to be involved in developing the policies and plans that impact those services and their lives. Equally, under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, young people have the right to participate and to be heard and take up space in public spaces. Speak Out and Scottish Youth Parliament are important parts of that picture, developing campaigns that are youth led and genuinely reflecting girls and young women’s experiences. This makes for more impactful campaigning, telling the stories of young people, rather than adults guessing. Young people have a lot of passion, skills, energy, hope and time to offer to social action, making them well placed to make change.

What’s next for the girl voice team is looking at how we can embed girl voice in governance and decision making across the organisation and making sure we’re truly girl led.

Find out more about girls speaking out here.