One thing we don’t talk about enough in Croydon… is our incredible green spaces and parks, and how much that investment is actually being felt.

• Girls are feeling safer outside

• Girls are building friendships

• Girls are having amoment to just breathe.

The sun came out yesterday…and it actually felt like spring was saying hello.

So our team did what made sense before the weather changes up on us.They took a small group of under 16 girls who attended our beingHER Safe Space Hub, Croydon’s only girls-only community hub, out to the park.

The girls were able to convince the team to get McDonald’s as their choice of lunch too. Honestly, if my team and I can create even a few hours where our girls get to feel like girls—as in children—without all that pressure they face, then we are doing our job right.

At 15, growing up in Croydon, I was navigating vulnerability, exploitation and adverse experiences that could have shaped my life very differently. And I carry that with me in the work every day. For over a decade now, I’ve been building work that uses those experiences to create safer, stronger futures for marginalised girls and young women.

Through the National Lottery Community Fund–Million Hours Fund, we’ve been able to:

→ Open our girls’ safe space every day after school during the week, including one weekend a month.

→ Create moments like this—where girls can simply go out to their local parks with friends and trusted adults and enjoy themselves.

To our partners, supporters, and especially the National Lottery Community Fund, thank you for trusting grassroots organisations like ours to deliver this work.

And to our Croydon leaders and decision-makers: This is what investment in girls looks like.

This is what prevention looks like.

This is what community safety looks like.

Thank you, and let’s keep building.