Joy Salaja on our Peer Support Circle: "A practical, safe and ambitious space".

Peer Circle alumna Joy Salaja has created a video review of our Peer Circle Programme. Joy discusses the experience of putting political ambitions into motion and building networks of supportive women, online. This is part of our core goal: to de-mystify politics making the process as accessible as possible.

“Hey everyone, my name is Joy. This video is going to be a quick review and feedback of my experience undertaking The Parliament Project’s online peer support circles. I am a member of the Liberal Democrats and I found out about the peer circles through a colleague in the party. I was drawn by their aim to create a practical, safe and ambitious space for women to connect with other women.

The sessions were held once every week over a six-week period. It was delivered online over video conferencing. This was great as it meant I didn’t have to leave my home to attend the meetings. I was with a wonderful group of women from all over the UK. I found the sessions useful as they allowed me to explore the different pathways into politics. Also, because it was a safe space, it allowed us to talk about and share our political ambitions.

We were assigned simple weekly tasks to get us talking and as each week went on, I tried to give the tasks a bit of thought, so as not to disappoint the group. If you are going to join the programme, I would advise you to at least do the weekly tasks so that you can get more out of the sessions and you are not left behind. The tasks were beneficial as it allowed us to have in-depth conversations about issues facing women, from barriers to politics to building a social media profile. The women in my group were extremely encouraging in that I should pursue my dreams to run for office, to create a plan and to work towards that dream.

Getting involved in this programme means I have now built a network which I can reach out to in the future. The workshop has definitely increased my motivation to run for political office and I would definitely recommend it to any ladies out there thinking about getting involved. All I’ll say is sign up and don’t give it a second thought”.

We would like to thank Joy for creating this review of our programme. Receiving feedback like this only fuels our ambition to continue what we do, and beyond! We must, and will, continue to make positive impact and strive to ensure diverse women are heard in decision-making.

You can follow Joy on Twitter at @JoySalaja.