Our Story
It all started at SChool…
Hi! Debs here. Working as a teacher in a Secondary School in Oxfordshire was when I really began to notice the impact of low self-esteem in our teenage girls, and how many girls were struggling. Struggling with low motivation, self-consciousness and a lack of confidence. Some girls who were slow to raise their hand in a lesson or volunteer answers for fear of being wrong, or looking around them to check they were fitting in. Panic attacks, anxiety and low mood amongst other symptoms. For some it impacted their education, but more importantly, their sense of self and true belonging.
According to Dove, 61% struggle with low self-esteem - fuelled by social media that encourages comparison, and accelerated by a pandemic that has dented social confidence. By the time they reach 18, girls are twice as likely to experience mental health conditions than boys, which inevitably has strong links with conditions such as anxiety, eating disorders, self-harming and low mood.
As a charity we want to help teenage girls build self-esteem and make good decisions. So after lots of chats with the teenage girls themselves I began to get a deeper understanding of the struggles going on behind the scenes, and this is where the idea of our charity, Know Your Worth, came about…
By 2022 we were A charity…
In May 2022, we obtained official charity status. This was a huge milestone for us. We realised, after already working in a few local secondary schools and a housing estate in Oxford, that this was working. Girls were learning, finding belonging, and growing self-esteem. Our course, our content and our connection with the girls was making a difference. More schools began to book us in, alongside a county-wide initiative and community groups.
In September 2023 we had the pleasure of Emilie joining the team as a Course Facilitator, to help meet the growing demand of those benefiting from our service. Then, in September 2024, Mim, an Associate, joined us too.
We have a growing board of trustees, who do lots of work behind the scenes and help make this dream possible too.
And now we’re expanding…
We are now in a really exciting phase of Know Your Worth’s history. We are expanding into the North West of England with a view to running our courses in local Secondary Schools there as well as continuing our work across Oxfordshire and Berkshire.
We are running our first ever Training Programme across England (including a spot in Northern Ireland!) to enable Community and Youth Leads to receive our training and deliver the Know Your Worth course with their young people, in their contexts - empowering even more teenage girls to be reached.
We can’t wait to see what happens in the year ahead and hope that you will join us on our journey, however that looks!
“Coming to Know Your Worth on Monday nights is the best part of my week”
~ Know Your Worth Participant (age 14) ~