BelEve
Building the next generation of strong female leaders
BelEve supports girls and young women aged 8 to 22 to build the confidence, skills and relationships to lead in their own lives. Founded in London by three sisters in memory of their mother, it is rooted in sisterhood and the power of strong female role models.
Working with schools, youth settings and businesses, BelEve runs in-school and after-school clubs, holiday camps, leadership programmes and one-to-one mentoring with trained mentors. Sessions mix group discussion, practical activities and personal reflection, while career insight events with companies give girls a real view into different professions.
Girls leave BelEve with greater self-belief, a clearer sense of their goals and networks that open doors to further study and work. The change reaches beyond each girl, too, as confident young women bring that energy back to their families, schools and neighbourhoods.
2024
Year they joined the Raise Your Hands platform
4,267
Children and Young People supported last year
Why they’re needed
Confidence alone is not enough to help girls succeed. They also need skills, supportive relationships and access to opportunities, and these are not shared equally. Many girls grow up without a female role model in the career they would love to pursue, or anyone to show them how to get there.
Key moments, such as starting secondary school or moving into further study and work, can shake a young person’s self-belief. Girls also face pressures specific to growing up today, including sexual harassment, and traditional ideas about who looks like a leader can quietly narrow what they imagine for themselves.
BelEve’s founders saw how much their own mother’s example had shaped them, and how many girls never had that kind of support. The charity exists so that every girl, whatever her starting point, has people in her corner and the chance to find her voice.
How they do it
BEAM Empowerment Club runs in schools, as an after-school club, in youth settings and online, using small group discussion, activities, peer mentoring and reflection to build self-belief. Be Empowered supports girls as they start secondary school, while BelEve In Her Space offers relaxed after-school drop-in sessions within schools.
BelEve In Her Success matches young women aged 15 to 22 with a trained mentor for six monthly one-to-one sessions. Alongside mentoring, they attend skills workshops on confidence, leadership, interview technique and career insight, plus social events that connect them with peers and mentors.
Lead Her Ship develops the next generation of female leaders. In the school holidays, BEAM Holiday Camps build girls’ business thinking and enterprise, and BelEve works with companies on career events that show what different professions are really like.
Young women helped co-create It Is That Deep, a 90-minute workshop that opens up a safe space to talk about modern sexual harassment and encourages young people to recognise it and call it out, reflecting BelEve’s belief that girls’ own voices should shape the work.
Find out more about BelEve’s amazing work
Kaiya’s Story
Kaiya found BelEve on Instagram and signed up to volunteer on its Summer of Love holiday programme. She soon stepped up as a youth facilitator, leading sessions that taught younger girls about self-care and self-confidence, and discovered a real passion for helping others grow.
When Kaiya said she wanted to work in law, BelEve connected her with its Civil Service mentorship programme and with a solicitor at partner firm Simmons & Simmons. That mentoring helped her secure a role in private client law.
Along the way, she gained lasting friendships and a circle of women who championed her at every step, including BelEve’s founders, sisters Marsha, Chyloe and Rochelle Powell (pictured below). “BelEve’s sisterhood has nurtured my talents and confidence through love, advice, guidance, and incredible opportunities.”
Support BelEve along with 15 other children’s charities
BelEve is one of a portfolio of small UK children’s charities championed by Raise Your Hands. When you donate to us, your gift is shared equally between every charity in the portfolio.
One donation. 16 small charities. 16 ways to change a young life.
