POW Self Defence is a branch of Young Enterprise established in September 2024 that aims to increase awareness of self defence in order to reduce the risk of violence against girls and young women in the UK. We are made up of Sixth Form pupils at St Mary’s Calne and are united by our passion to support young women and protect them from violence on our streets. To promote our cause, we will be selling limited edition packs of POW Trump Cards to highlight this issue and provide skills and knowledge in a fun yet accessible way.
Our social enterprise aims to empower young women by spreading awareness and educating young girls. As students from an all girls school, we recognise the importance of empowering women and teaching girls the practical skills and confidence to protect themselves in challenging situations. Recognising the challenges girls may face in today's world, our mission is to create an accessible and easily understood hub of information and tips that are inclusive and supportive for all those who find themselves in these situations. We aim to foster a sense of empowerment and enable young women to feel more prepared, allowing them to be resilient and assertive when navigating every-day life. Ultimately, this website is tips for teenage girls, from teenage girls with the hope of giving girls, who aren’t as lucky as us, self-defence tips and tricks that can provide them with such an important advantage when faced with a dangerous situation.
Educating young women using easy and effective self defence methods.
Selling our POW Trump Cards to inform people about the importance of self defence.
Making our website a hub for information with places you can contact if you ever feel threatened.
Tips from teenage girls for teenage girls.
Self defence is so important for young women, not only to have the ability to protect themselves against possible dangers. But also to feel safe even doing the simplest of activities. Being a woman should not have to make you feel scared, and we want to help young girls build confidence to feel safe and able to protect themselves.
Many idea discussions took place to decide and solidify our product and design, and many steps were taking to lead us up to the position we are currently in. Originally, we were dwelling on popular high demand product ideas such as jewellery holders and coasters. However, our ideas had no incentive and meaning to them.
Our idea for POW was born after we attended a 'Self defence' workshop at our school.
After having this class one Saturday, we realized how few self protection techniques we knew and how the defence moves we learnt were not easy to perform for young inexperienced girls, as classes are often run by men, much stronger than ourselves, who seem 'big' and 'strong', therefore making one believe they may not be capable of the techniques and skills being taught..
We therefore decided that we wanted to spread accessible tips and tricks to young women like ourselves as part of our young enterprise project.
In our meetings we discussed creating a product that would help other girls learn self defence, and decided a website would be the best way to achieve this. We decided on our logo and company name at this stage.
However, we still needed a product to sell.
This is how we came to set up a company that could give young girls information that is easy and understandable, as well as being educational and helpful to teenagers wanting to protect themselves.
60%
As of 2021 around 60% of women in London said they felt unsafe on public transport.
72%
In a survey of over 1,000 American women conducted by the fitness app SWEAT, 72% of respondents said they feel safer knowing self-defence.
40%
Less than 40% of women who experience violence seek help.
80%
One martial arts centre has reported an 80% increase in demand for self defence lessons since lockdown
Written, taught and tested by girls, for girls.