From 10 – 11 September 2016 Girlguiding LaSER will be hosting Use Your Voice 2016, a unique and dynamic 2-day democracy festival for members of The Senior Section celebrating The Senior Section Spectacular! For more information please see here. Read about Lizzi Green’s experience of being on the planning committee for the event below.
I celebrated the Girlguiding Centenary in fairly spectacular style, having been chosen as one of 6 WAGGGS (World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts) delegates to represent the 10 million members of our amazing organisation at the UN Commission on the Status of Women. This year, I got to support the delegation as a remote delegate, and these two experiences have given me a passionate belief in the importance of advocacy and of using our voices to bring change. That’s why I’m so excited to be part of the programme team for Girlguiding LaSER’s Use Your Voice 2016, a 2-day democracy festival organised as part of the Senior Section Spectacular celebrations. We’re a couple of months into planning the festival now, and it’s beginning to get really exciting!
Our talented team is made up of people passionate about Girlguiding as an organisation that brings real, lasting change, and we hope to inspire you to discover your voice and make it heard! We've been busy in the last couple of months discussing what we mean by using our voice, and how we can plan talks, workshops, performances, networking events and lots of other exciting opportunities to equip our members with the tools they need.
Right now, we're in the middle of contacting an exciting range of people with experience of local, national and international advocacy, and beginning to put a plan for the festival together. We’ve got lots of ideas which we can’t wait to reveal as they become confirmed, but don’t hesitate to put the dates in your diary, because you aren’t going to want to miss this one! If you’re passionate and want to make a difference but you’re not sure how – if you’ve been advocating for ages and want to develop your skills and contacts – if you’re unsure but even vaguely interested – watch this space. It’s going to be fantastic!
Lizzi Green, Programme Team, Use Your Voice 2016