'Financially independent women are powerful women'
A charity for young women leaving care is set to hold a programme that aims to empower girls in the next steps of their careers.
Author Louise Allen says she set up Spark Sisterhood after suffering sexual, physical and emotional while growing up in care.
The charity will now begin a project giving access to employers in the Avonmouth area, called Care to Career, which aims to give confidence and further educate young women who are coming out of the care system.
"Financially independent women are powerful women and we want them to believe in their own potential," said Ms Allen. The scheme is set to run for two weeks from 2 -13 June at Lawrence Weston Farm, Bristol.
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Ms Allen says she was put into forced adoption when she was a teen.
She says her adoptive family left her without food, starving for periods at a time.
She was also abused by older children around her in her adoptive home.
"It took a long time to talk about because no one would want to hear that children could do that," she said.
On one occasion, she said that while on the way to an emergency home, the man who was taking her "lifted up her skirt", leaving her "in shock".
"I was only a child and I knew it was wrong," she said but, when they arrived, she recalled him saying to the carers "watch this one she tells lies".
"Hearing these words made me want to do the work I do now," Ms Allen explained.
She said the new programme was about helping young women leaving care to "feel seen, supported, and genuinely excited about what's next".
It is targeted towards care-experienced young women aged 18 to 25 and will be supported by the Allen Lane Foundation, which awards UK charities with funding.
Care for Careers will give the young women access to employers in the Avonmouth area including Bristol Port, Suez, Mathias and LW Farm.
Other employers will also be able to offer interviews, work experience and job placements to successful candidates.
The programme will hold daily sessions, covering a range of topics from personal safety, CV writing and stand-up comedy.
It will also offer the young women one-to-one sessions on voice and self confidence.
Ms Allen says she is also currently working with authorities and a charity called Escape Line to help remove young people from gangs like county lines criminal groups involved in drugs.
She said gangs use tactics to recruit children like making them late for school and "blowing weed [smoke] on them so the schools think they are taking drugs".
The new project aims to remove girls and young women from these environments and prepare them for professional careers.
"This has blown my mind," Ms Allen said, "It matters to the girls, this is their chance to get out of the poverty cycle."
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