Brave – Building Brighter Futures for Girls
From March through May, Salvation Army corps across Canada organized Brave events to empower girls in their community. Brave is a catalytic movement for girls, an annual event and point of contact for vulnerable youth with positive and uplifting messages from speakers, artists, dancers, and community leaders. On April 29th, two corps in the Prairie Division held Brave events for the first time, bringing together around 50 women and girls for an amazing day.
In Saskatoon, 16 girls took part in keynote and guest speaker sessions and a variety of activities like soap making, beading, juggling, painting, hoop dancing and baking.
At Weetamah in Winnipeg, 28 people, including 12 youth, three adults attending with youth and 13 workshop presenters, volunteers and extras who helped and participated, had an incredible day.
Field Based Cadet Jenny Hale helped organize the event at Weetamah with Captain Deanna Scott. Their day began with icebreaker activities, a video presentation from Dr. Janet Munn and then an inspirational talk from a woman who survived exploitation and has started a new chapter with support from The Salvation Army. She concluded her talk by performing a hoop dance and taught some of the participants how to use the hoops.
The participants were able to choose from a variety of activities like cookie decorating, painting, a panel discussion, a sustainability talk and a resume workshop in conjunction with the Work Readiness Program (WKRP) offered at Weetamah. Lunch was good ol’ fashioned comfort food – grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup prepared by partner Community Helpers Unite a local group that shares Weetamah’s industrial kitchen. Delicious snacks were supplied by a local young entrepreneur Kayla’s Cakes.
Here’s what some of the participants had to say
(as told to Jenny Hale):
Violet, 17, said she decided to come today because she liked the idea of empowering women. The thing she liked most about the event was having a hoop dancing presentation and workshop. She said she loved seeing her culture.
Aury’s, 14, favourite part of the event was the cookie decorating workshop. Her biggest takeaway was learning about women in history who she had never heard of before but who have done big things to impact the world.
Mya thanked me for hosting the event, saying how much she loved all of the activities and enjoyed making new friends.
“I felt empowered myself,” Jenny says. “I was encouraged to see the girls all together and make new friends.”
“We had a lot of partnerships from within The Salvation Army in the city, WKRP, Cross Bridge Church, the Prairie Youth department, and Prairie Women’s Ministries. We also partnered with Living Bible Explorers. A lot of the girls who came were connected with Living Bible Explorers. We have a relationship with their youth leaders, who use our chapel at Weetamah for their youth programming on Friday nights. It was amazing to see everyone come together,” Jenny continues.
“This was an amazing event to be a part of; to see friendships develop and the connections and partnerships that came together for the empowerment of our young people was wonderful. It was awesome to see the excitement of everyone involved and the eagerness for another event,” says Deanna.
Special thanks to Amanda at the Love: Locally Operated Vendor Emporium, who assisted us in choosing the perfect thank-you gifts for our volunteers that were created by local women vendors and Bargains Group who, through their support program, donated shampoo, conditioner and soap kits for the event.
Brave is a global movement founded in California in 2014. In 2018, Brave Global launched in Canada and in 2020, The Salvation Army, through Women’s Ministries, became a partner to offer the program to youth in their home communities. Brave’s aim is to “educate and empower girls that come from vulnerable situations, with hopes to engage them before they become victims of sexual exploitation and trafficking.” Brave programming is guided by three pillars: 1) Equality and Dignity – We see you. You Matter. 2) Hope and Empowerment – We believe in you. You can do it. 3) Inclusions and Mutuality – We are with you. You can count on us.
