The Innisfail community services department is hoping to empower, inspire, and educate young girls during their first ever girls’ conference held in Innisfail.
The conference is called GIRL You Rock and includes a full day of activities for girls ages 12-18.
The day will take the teens on a journey to become Gifted Intelligent Responsible Leaders, which is what the ‘GIRL’ in the title stands for.
“Girls are bombarded by so many different messages these days and we wanted to do something that would help young women gain leadership skills,” said Heather Dixon, who is with the community services department and who created the event.
“It is all about self-esteem and self-awareness for the teens.”
The event will feature a guest speaker and two different breakout sessions with activities for the girls.
The guest speaker is Alison Springer, a youth worker and businesswoman from Calgary. Springer is the founder of a company called Greater Than Communications, and has worked with youth in drop-in centres, churches, and schools throughout the province. Her goal is to give youth practical tools to deal with societal pressures. The first of the two breakout sessions is called Thinking Outside the Box and participants will choose between three courses called Skin Deep, Being Your Best, and Girls Rock.
In the second session, which is called Being Wildly Creative, girls will be able to choose between learning Mechanics 101 with staff from OK Tire; learning to make cupcakes with Kakes by Kara; or will learn to craft memory boxes.
“We really wanted to be able to give girls confidence and empower them to do things like being able to change their own tire or check the fluids on their car,” said Dixon.
The conference is being held on Saturday, April 16 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Innisfail Junior Senior High School.
Registration to the conference costs $50. To register or for more information contact the Town of Innisfail community services department.
