Our mission is simple: to nurture, empower and inspire young women to build a better future for themselves.
Since 1976, The Prince’s Trust - now The King's Trust - has continued in its belief that every young person should have the chance to succeed. Across our global network, we support 11 to 30-year-olds in 23 countries who are facing multiple barriers to progressing with their lives to engage in education, start careers and become entrepreneurs.
The Trust's global network of support for young people includes The Prince’s Trust in the UK, The King’s Trust International, The King’s Trust Australia, The King’s Trust Aotearoa New Zealand, The King’s Trust Canada and The King’s Trust USA. In each country where we work, we have already had success in supporting young women but our aspiration is to join together to create a truly global campaign to support young women around the world.
Launching in March 2024, the goal of the campaign is to raise $20 million to expand The King’s Trust’s global delivery of self-development and employability programs that enable young women to progress, break cycles of poverty and discover new aspirations.
Women and girls around the world tend to face a range of disproportionate challenges that can have a detrimental impact on their lives and prospects.
Globally, more boys than girls are able to enter education and complete their studies. As a result of societal norms about appropriate courses of study for men and women, many young women lack the digital literacy needed to participate in an increasingly digital world. According to The Trust's 2023 Future of Work survey, only 50% of young women felt they had the skills they need for a digital job (compared to 65% of young men).
Women are more likely to be unemployed than their male counterparts. Their economic participation is often undervalued and restricted, and as a result they are overrepresented in precarious, unpaid, and informal labor positions such as domestic and care work. The 2023 Future of Work survey found that 74% of young women have not had a pay rise that has been enough to keep up with the rising cost of living (compared to 66% of young men).
Women continue to be outnumbered by men in senior leadership positions across all industries, holding only about 32% of all Director, Vice-President, or C-suite positions. make up less than a third of leadership positions, according to the World Economic Forum's "Global Gender Gap Report 2023".
The Covid-19 pandemic has only amplified gender-specific labor gaps. In particular, women and girls are more likely to:
- Be out of school - It is estimated that 11 million girls in developing countries may never return to school following the pandemic.
- Be at risk of child marriage - 2020 saw the biggest surge in child marriage rates in 25 years. Half a million girls were at risk of child marriage in 2020 with a further 2.5 million girls projected to be at risk by 2025.
- Be unemployed or in informal/low-paid jobs - It is estimated that women make up almost two fifths of the global labor force but have suffered more than half of total job losses from the crisis.
HOW THE TRUST IS RESPONDING
The challenging landscape young women face means that our support is more important than ever. We are adapting our work to meet this need and to reach those most in need.
We focus on supporting young women around the world who are most in need and who face adversity in the transition from childhood to adulthood.
This includes young women from areas with greater economic deprivation, from minority ethnic backgrounds, those leaving the care system, dealing with disability or mental health challenges, or the domestic and sexual violence that young women are more likely to experience. Our work falls under three core areas, underpinned by aims to improve self-esteem, wellbeing and confidence.
Education
We offer support and build aspirations for young women who may not thrive in mainstream education. Girls experience a greater drop in self-esteem and wellbeing during secondary schooling than boys, severely impacting their confidence. Through our Education work we prepare young women to leave education with key skills for life, confidence in their potential, and strong foundations for future careers.
Employability
Young women are more likely to experience barriers to employment such as being a single parent, having caring responsibilities or facing issues with childcare. Our Employability programs support young women into employment or training and to overcome the challenges they experience in securing sustainable and well-paid work. Programs include a comprehensive package of employability, life skills and vocational skills training.
Enterprise
The Trust is an expert in supporting business start-ups. Through our Enterprise programs, we equip young women with role models, access to finance and networks to offer young women the opportunity to create more flexible working arrangements through self-employment, which can help them overcome some of the barriers of traditional employment. These programs give young women opportunities to explore self-employment, to build knowledge, skills and confidence to start-up and grow their own businesses.
IMPACT
- In 2022/2023 The Trust supported over 40,000 young women globally
- 70% of young women who participated on programs were in work, education or training after 3 months
#CHANGEAGIRLSLIFE
For International Women's Day 2023, The Prince’s Trust united some of the UK's much-loved brands who committed to #ChangeAGirlsLife by donating a portion of proceeds from specific products to The Prince's Trust's work helping thousands of young women across the UK build a better future for themselves.
Inspired by the iconic female character, Minnie Mouse, Disney x George at Asda was a collaboration celebrating Disney's 100th anniversary in support of The Prince's Trust #ChangeAGirlsLife campaign.
The partnership featured a three-day ‘Get Started’ program to support young people breaking into the world of product design, followed by a six-month mutual mentorship program and fun photo shoot.
Products were developed by participants around the theme of equality, strength and empowerment. Program participants also engaged in numerous storytelling and content creation opportunities, activated through multiple channels including POS, social media, online and PR.
The partnership received significant coverage, including features on This Morning, Lorraine, Grazia, Stylist and The Sun. Strong sales performance of products produced through this collaboration resulted in £100,000 donated to #ChangeAGirlsLife.
Amal Clooney Women’s Empowerment Award
The Amal Clooney Women’s Empowerment Award celebrates the achievements of inspirational young women around the world, highlighting the work of those who have succeeded against the odds to make a lasting difference in their communities.
This annual global award - sponsored by King’s Trust Ambassador for Enterprise, Charlotte Tilbury - celebrates young women who are the driving force behind initiatives that are helping their communities to thrive.
Meet Zamana - 2023 Winner of Amal Clooney's Women Empowerment Award
‘This award means so much to me. Every girl in my community has a dream for her future, just like girls all over the world,’ Zamana explains. "Education gives them the opportunity to follow their dreams and build a better future for themselves, their family and their community. When girls drop out of school early, they lose that opportunity. My dream is for more girls to stay in school."
A vocal champion of girls’ education, Zamana (17) launched a campaign to support and encourage girls to stay in school – building on the public speaking and communication skills that she developed over the course of the Enterprise Challenge program.
This King’s Trust International program, delivered in East Africa with the Asante Africa Foundation, gives participants the chance to hone their entrepreneurship, communication and problem-solving skills while developing and pitching their own business ideas.
In Zamana’s home country of Tanzania, almost a third of girls are married by the time they turn 18. Within her community, as elsewhere, many girls drop out of school because of early marriage or pregnancy. Zamana’s campaign, ‘Allow Me To Study,’ focuses on influencing two main groups: schoolgirls and their parents. She initiates and leads conversations that stress that school-aged girls should not yet become wives and mothers, and should instead focus on completing their education.
In the US we will use funds raised through the campaign to:
- Work towards achieving gender parity in our US program delivery.
- Instill female economic empowerment through the delivery of our Enterprise Challenge program
- Create a Development Award fund to help young women facing practical barriers to careers by funding items such as laptops, childcare, qualifications or travel.
We’re proud of what we’ve achieved so far, but we know there is still more to do to help young women facing great adversity. We would welcome the opportunity to build bespoke partnerships through strategic philanthropy and corporate investment to further our impact on the lives of young women and girls.
We would welcome a further conversation with you to understand how we might best work together. For more information please contact Alison Zayas, Director of Philanthropy at The King's Trust USA at alison.zayas@kingstrust.us.