Supporting young women to achieve their dreams

The 2019 Audrey Fagan Young Women Enrichment Grants are now open and young women aged between 12 and 18, who are undertaking study in the ACT have an opportunity to realise their dreams through a grant of up to $2,000.

These grants are designed to enable young women to develop and enhance their skills in an area of interest and have the potential to increase women’s participation in decision-making and leadership roles both now and into the future.

Young women that have previously received grants under this program are already demonstrating enhanced skills that are supporting them to achieve their life-long goals.

One of last year’s grant recipient, Ms Caitlyn Crick, is using her funding to undertake training on a powered aircraft. Ms Crick hopes to achieve her first solo flight before her sixteenth birthday and hopes this training will contribute towards her long-term goal of becoming a career pilot.

“The Audrey Fagan Grant was an incredible opportunity which allowed me to achieve something I never thought possible. The concept of a 15 year old girl flying a plane by herself seemed so foreign to me until this amazing opportunity popped up”, Ms Crick said.

“I would encourage any young woman out there to make the most of this to achieve her dreams. The grant really turned the impossible to the possible for me and I think it’s an incredible option for women needing that extra leg to stand on when working towards a goal of any kind.”

Another recipient from last year, Ms Dhani Gilbert, used her grant to engage with master weavers and her mentor to learn the art of weaving, culturally competent group facilitation and community building skills. She has applied this training to establish and lead opportunities for young Aboriginal women to come together and share traditional weaving skills in school environments.

The Enrichment Grants are a component of the Audrey Fagan Scholarship program established in 2007 to honour former ACT Chief Police Officer Audrey Fagan’s contribution as an inspirational leader and mentor for young women.

Grant applications close at 5.00pm on Monday 19 August 2019, to apply please go to https://www.communityservices.act.gov.au/home/grants

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