A youth-led project that began as a small discussion group for girls at Ysgol Greenhill has grown into an award-winning movement reaching across Pembrokeshire and beyond.

Supported by Pembrokeshire Youth Service and Senior Youth Worker Leah Walker, We Know Our Journey has spent the past four years empowering young people to become leaders, educators and advocates for positive change.

The countywide initiative now brings together girls and boys to promote healthy relationships, positive masculinity, mental health awareness, emotional wellbeing, and the prevention of violence against women and girls.

Young people involved in the project have led workshops, developed resources, raised more than £3,000 for local charities, represented Pembrokeshire at national and international events, and worked with a range of partners to create lasting change in their communities.

The project has also built strong working relationships with a number of organisations in Wales, including the Welsh Government’s Sound campaign.

Following a Taith exchange trip to New Zealand involving We Know Our Journey and Her Voice, a Vale of Glamorgan youth project, a new community interest company, Our Voice Our Journey, was created to continue and expand the work.

The group has also worked with the global movement She Is Not Your Rehab, which members hope to welcome back to Pembrokeshire this September.

Among its achievements, We Know Our Journey has helped develop a bilingual Sexual Harassment Toolkit with Her Voice for use across Wales, launched positive masculinity campaigns, and delivered emotional wellbeing projects that have reached schools and communities across the county.

The project’s work has been recognised with a Highly Commended Safer Wales Award and a Pembrokeshire Spotlight Award.

Earlier this year, Leah was invited to St James’s Palace for a special event celebrating local government workers and their work around violence against women and girls, domestic abuse and sexual violence.

Leah said: “What started as a small group of determined young people has become a powerful example of what can be achieved when young people are trusted to lead.

“As We Know Our Journey continues to grow, its mission remains clear: to educate, empower and inspire lasting change.

“I am incredibly proud of our young people and what they have achieved.”

FOLLOWING a recent Church in Wales legal threat against Pembrokeshire’s council over plans to remove church status from Cilgerran’s school, Wales Humanists has supported the council plans.

The Humanist support comes after the Church in Wales issued a formal notice that it will take legal action against Pembrokeshire County Council if it presses ahead with plans to remove church status from Cilgerran Voluntary Controlled Primary School.

Back in May, the council voted to remove the Voluntary Controlled status of the Welsh-speaking rural school and to establish it as a 3-11 community school despite 97 per cent of the responses to a consultation about its potential discontinuation opposing it.

That consultation followed a review which “considered the extent of surplus school places in the area, set against a significant decline in the pupil population,” the council has previously said.

Hundreds opposed the proposed changes, with a petition on the council’s own website gaining 391 signatures.

During the consultation, 203 responses were received; 97 per cent (197 responses) against the proposal, with just 1.5 per cent (three) in favour.

Following this, a letter was sent to council officers on behalf of the Diocese of St Davids and the Church in Wales saying that, if the council persists with this course, the Church will take legal action on the grounds of claims of “public misrepresentation and unqualified legal assertions made by Pembrokeshire County Council officers,” and “discrimination against faith schooling”.

The letter also says that, if the council removes VC status from the school, the Church will not make the site available for a successor school, which it says will render “the case on which the proposed removal of VC status is based untenable”.

The legal warning described “the gratuitous attack on the church status of Ysgol Cilgerran” as amounting to “a targeted assault on the inclusive Christian education which Church in Wales schools have provided to their communities for generations”.

Since then, Wales Humanists has welcomed the move, which would remove church status from Cilgerran Voluntary Controlled Primary School, and has written to Pembrokeshire County Council expressing its support for the proposal “on behalf of the area’s substantial non-religious community”.

It says, according to the 2021 Census, almost half of people in Pembrokeshire identified as having no religion.

Kathy Riddick, Campaigns and Policy Manager for Wales Humanists, said: “Schools should exist to serve their whole community. Where publicly funded schools no longer reflect the beliefs of the communities they serve, it is entirely appropriate for local authorities to consider whether they should continue to have a religious character.

“The question is whether publicly funded schools should continue to be legally designated as belonging to one particular religion when they serve increasingly diverse communities.

“We believe education should be equally welcoming to every child, regardless of their religion or belief, and call on local authorities across Wales to keep the religious character of maintained schools under review so that school organisation reflects local demographics and the needs of modern communities.”

A PIONEERING Pembrokeshire skills initiative encouraging young women to consider careers in sustainable power, renewable energy and construction has welcomed The Crown Estate as its newest partner.

The SPARC Alliance works with secondary schools across the county to bring future local career opportunities to life for girls aged 12 to 14, with a particular focus on STEM-related pathways.

The programme is already supported by RWE Generation and RWE Renewables at Pembroke Power Station, the Port of Milford Haven, Blue Gem Wind and Ledwood Engineering.

It has now announced new backing from The Crown Estate, the independent organisation which manages land, property and the seabed across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Crown Estate is playing a key role in the development of floating offshore wind in the Celtic Sea, with South West Wales expected to be at the centre of a new clean energy industry.

Three sites for new windfarms are being taken forward by some of the world’s leading offshore wind companies, creating major opportunities for the region and its supply chain.

The Crown Estate has also awarded funding through its £50m Supply Chain Accelerator Programme, including projects in Pembrokeshire, and is co-funding the regional Fit For Offshore Renewables programme in South Wales with the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult.

Supporters say the growth of the sector could create significant demand for engineers, welders, construction workers, environmental specialists, business support professionals, maritime experts and port operatives.

Current forecasts suggest more than 5,000 jobs could be created through new Celtic Sea windfarms and their associated supply chains.

However, with an ageing population and changing demographics, there is increasing pressure to ensure local young people have the skills and confidence needed to take advantage of these opportunities.

SPARC aims to help meet that challenge by engaging young women who have historically been underrepresented in engineering, construction, manufacturing and clean energy careers.

Through direct contact with industry, pupils are given insight into the range of roles being created by renewable energy, from traditional power generation to offshore wind and hydrogen technologies.

Hayley Williams, of Pembrokeshire College, the lead partner for SPARC, said: “The Crown Estate’s commitment to SPARC will enable the programme to expand its reach across more schools and strengthen its support for young women aspiring to become STEM professionals.

“This includes enhanced mentoring opportunities, helping participants explore both university pathways and work-based apprenticeships as routes into the industries that will shape Pembrokeshire’s future.”

SPARC Alliance partners say the programme is helping ensure local young people are informed, inspired and equipped to seize the opportunities presented by one of the most significant economic developments Wales has seen in a generation.