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Members of the Richmond Women’s Resource Centre Youth Committee are planning to offer career workshops for female-identifying youth and young adults.

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Youth Committee empowering young women

By Hannah Scott

Published 1:15 PDT, Fri April 29, 2022

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Members of a new community group are working to empower female-identifying youth and young adults who are pursuing careers.

The Richmond Women’s Resource Centre (RWRC) Youth Committee was started by Li Qing Wang when she was part of Richmond Cares, Richmond Gives’ Youth Now volunteer program.

“One of the things we were asked to do is to design and lead a community project with the non-profit we were assigned to. I was assigned to the RWRC, and that’s when the initial idea for the project started,” says Wang.

She explains that RWRC didn’t previously have a youth committee, and she wanted to give a voice to female-identifying youth in the community.

“As a female student myself pursuing a professional career, from my own personal experiences and from talking to professionals and observing other people as well as my own environment, I still see that there’s a lot of gender inequity that exists whether in the hiring process or in the workplace,” says Wang. “I’m not sure what is the best way to change the system, but I think this project would be a way for us to inspire change at an individual level.”

The Youth Committee began recruiting high school students last fall, and its initial plan has two phases. In the first phase, the team will design and roll out a survey, as well as using a focus group to learn about the challenges faced by female high school students trying to decide on a career. In the second phase, a series of workshops will be offered to help high schoolers learn first-hand about different careers from female-identifying professionals.

“It’s really useful to see someone in the career you’re interested in, to provide some perspective and share their own story,” says Wang. “I believe that the female-specific experience is very unique and that’s the whole point of this project.”

She hopes the one-on-one interactions will help high school girls consider certain careers and get a realistic idea of what they are like.

The committee includes 12 people so far, and despite busy work and school schedules they are making time to build on their ideas. Members are divided into sub-committees to develop specific areas of the plan.

Rana Sarmiento is a Grade 11 student at Hugh Boyd secondary and a member of the marketing sub-committee.

“We talk and decide what (social media) platform we want to use and then create content needed using programs like Canva, talk about what we want to put on it, then talk to organizers and see if it’s a fit for what we want to promote,” she says.

Grade 10 student Amanda Chu, who attends Richmond Secondary School, and third year Simon Fraser University undergraduate student Samantha Zhou, are part of the focus group sub-committee.

“For the bi-weekly meetings we go through things we’re working on, make sure we’re on track, discuss the outline, planning, and other details,” says Chu.

Zhou says the group is currently working on interviewing groups of high school students.

All three say being part of the group has been a rewarding experience. Sarmiento says she likes working with new people towards a common goal. For Chu, it’s inspiring to be able to make an impact on the future careers of girls and young women.

“This is a really eye-opening experience on how much work goes into doing something like this, especially how influential we want it to be in the future for other (female-identifying) high school (students),” says Zhou.

Thanks to $1,000 in funding from the Richmond Community Foundation, Wang hopes the committee will be able to operate as a longer-term effort. The group is aiming to offer workshops this fall.

Anyone interested in volunteering can contact the group.

“We’re a very supportive environment and take things at our own pace,” says Wang. “We’re always encouraging communication between members and understanding that everyone has a very busy life and this is something they take on (as an) extra.”