Rising Voices of Young Women for Representation

Women remain a minority in political decision-making across Europe. Young women from marginalized, vulnerable, or ethnic minority backgrounds are especially underrepresented.

When diverse perspectives are missing from decision-making and public discourse, the resulting decisions are narrow and fail to reflect society as a whole. This perpetuates inequality.

The Rising Voices initiative aims to address this challenge by strengthening young women’s opportunities to participate and encouraging them to bring their perspectives into societal discussions.

Rising Voices is a new, free program for young women aged 15–20—especially those from vulnerable backgrounds and minority groups—who want to build confidence, develop public speaking and communication skills, and discover their own way to make an impact. It’s not just about politics, but also everyday issues, communities, and ensuring young voices are heard.

The program’s goals include:

• Strengthening the advocacy and communication skills of young women from marginalized and minority backgrounds
• Increasing confidence to engage in dialogue and civic activities
• Promoting visibility and representation of diverse young women in public life
• Providing mentorship and practical knowledge about influencing change
• Enabling the application of skills through community projects

Rising Voices offers young women free training, personal mentorship from experienced female changemakers, and the opportunity to carry out a community-based project. The training and mentoring programs will begin in early 2026 and last for one year.

This coming October, we will organize focus group workshops in the Helsinki metropolitan area to discuss with young women from the target group about their thoughts and hopes for the program. These interviews will serve as the foundation for developing the training and mentoring program.