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Members were encouraged to explore the issues around why under 16s run away. Following this, the girls were invited to take part in a range of  awareness raising activities and fund raising actions.

 

The Power of Dreams

The Power of Dreams was a huge success with 17,791 members taking part. In total we have raised £56,909 to fund beds for under-16 runaways in the UK. More importantly 9,796 members raised awareness of why children run away from home in their local communities and 192 members even took direct action by writing to MP's and Local Councillors to highlight the problem.

In amongst this serious discussion, girls were inspired to have fun at sponsored sleepovers and pyjama parties and learnt that all children have the same dreams of safe space to grow. 'We were delighted that, despite the fact that many of the girls had not heard about Railway Children, many units chose to get involved with our project' said Katie Mason from the Railway Children. 'It is not an easy subject but both the children and the adults embraced the topic and got involved, both in finding out more about the issues of running away and raising funds to help ensure the U's runaways have somewhere safe to dream. We have been very impressed with how professional and helpful Girlguiding UK have been. Changing the World is a very ambitious statement to make but we truly believe that the organisation has taken this to heart and have taken many steps towards making this happen. They have shown themselves to be a very outward-looking organisation and have certainly demonstrated that 'Changing the World' is more than simply a name.

You can still download the Power of Dreams activity pack from the Railway Children information page.