Girl Power! Calico project gets £28,000 Heritage Lottery Fund grant

Calico Homes’ Valley Street Community Centre's 'Happy and Proud project', which started last month, aims to identify opportunities for young girls to develop themselves going forward as they learn new skills as well as distilling in them a sense of pride in their heritage and where they come from.

Already having an impact, Happy and Proud's next endeavour will be to work with a group of girls and use the textiles history of the town to look at what made women of the past happy and proud, with the aim of inspiring the 21st century generation to follow in their footsteps.

“The grant funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund will support the young women and girls to develop their strengths, learning about local women in history, and realising their potential in the future," said Alicia Foley, Community Investment Manager at Calico Homes and Valley Street. "We are really excited about what they can achieve.”

Although the project aims to get the girls to be the best they can be, its objectives are centred more on encouraging the girls to research strong and successful women in history - those who have made discoveries, innovated projects, and studied hard to achieve their goals, and will allow the girls to work with partners at Gawthorpe Textiles Collection and Participation Works.

An exhibition is planned in early 2019 to celebrate their achievements and showcase their findings.