The Women’s Advisory Board works alongside the IARS Youth Advisory Board to ensure that the voices of users are reflected in YEIP’s practical results.
The Women’s Advisory Board is hosted and supported by the IARS International Institute. The women, users and direct beneficiaries of the Institute’s women-focused projects scrutinize all IARS project and take on a responsible role within the organization.
In this framework, the women involved in the Board, are trained community researchers and will support the Youth Empowerment and Innovation Project to reach out to the hardest to engage communities, interview other refugees and asylum seekers and find out about their first-hand experiences and their associated risks and protective factors.
The Women’s Advisory Board role in YEIP will involve peer research, co-facilitation of workshops, policy seminars and events aimed to impact on current policy and legislation. They will also be responsible along with the Youth Advisory Board to review and scrutinize the Prevent model and all project materials directed to marginalized youth. The WAB will be work alongside the YEIP team, to co-design awareness campaigns for vulnerable young women and girls.
“The WAB has helped me because now I have more confidence. I didn’t know before that I could like speak in between people, I did really not have a voice. Like when we are in the group we are talking about what’s happened to refugee women and you find yourself experiencing the same problems as others. All the women. Before when you didn’t know, you feel like I’m the only one going through this and then when you come to find out that a lot of people are going through the same situation so that gives you courage” D., WAB member
If you want to join the Women’s Advisory Board please contact us at contact@iars.org.uk . More about the Women’s Advisory Board can be found here.