What is
Sister System?
The Big Sister you never had.
The Big Sister who works alongside you as a young woman who has experienced care.
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The Big Sister who empowers you to make choices, navigate life, and fulfil your potential.
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Sister System's holistic programmes deliver a service throughout the adolescent journey into early adulthood, from 13 to 24 years old, following the academic year. We bridge gaps during school holidays when we know young women are more vulnerable to a range of risks. All of our programmes have been co-curated with young women affected by looked-after care, shaping our content and activities alongside our founders' collective lived experience, knowledge and skill across the Children’s and Families Workforce we offer you a pathway curated for and by you.
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The core principle of our approach is to foster intergenerational connections between sisters, so that elder wisdom, experience and culture can be passed on to younger women. As experts by experience, young women will continue to shape and improve our services.
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Sister System offers young women a future-focused alternative educational provision which enables growth based on their own reality. We walk with them throughout adolescence and into early womanhood by working together to foster fulfilment through our holistic bespoke programmes that address the themes of female adolescence through the lens of care-affected girls. We believe they are the experts and as such are the heart of everything we do.
The core of Sister System are our peer led self-development workshops. Together, with accredited courses, we deliver a set of inclusive empowering, enabling and exploratory workshops which focus on education of self, investigate the social and emotional impact of the transition to womanhood and allow for the creation of a network of 'sisters' who can continue to support each other's growth throughout other key life transitions.
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The workshops make up the core of four of the Sister System programmes and are delivered at ages 13, 15, 17, 19 and 21 in order to complement key assessments in the education curriculum. Sister System champions the ‘each one teach one’ approach, the 'sisters' are acknowledged as the experts. Following graduation, 'sisters' are given a range of opportunities to share and cascade their knowledge and skills as Big Sisters, Peer Mentors, Ambassadors, Co-Facilitators as well as to continue to shape the organisation from governance and leadership to operations and delivery. Fostering an inter-generational approach and creating a family and community of support.
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We champion inclusive practices and therefore often have a ‘big’ sister co-delivering alongside one of our teaching team who employ dynamic and creative styles enabling a learning environment for all.
"A place where young women are given a chance. They are also given a space to feel free yet safe to express themselves"
Stephanie Brewster - Ambassador