First North East Ambassador For Prince’s Trust ‘Women Supporting Women’ Initiative Is Announced

Kari Owers, founder of creative communications agency O Communications has announced a three-year partnership with The Prince’s Trust. As part of the agency’s 15th year celebrations it has become the first company to support the initiative here in the region, helping empower young women to achieve their ambitions.

To mark the beginning of the partnership, ahead of next month’s International Women’s Day, O has launched a birthday year-long series of events and staff initiatives to help spread awareness of Women Supporting Women and encourage other companies to get involved.

Made up of leading female founders, entrepreneurs, business women, professionals and philanthropists who believe that all young women deserve the chance to succeed, regardless of their background or circumstances, Women Supporting Women is a new group that will enable The Prince’s Trust to support more young women through its programmes.

Women supporting the cause as patrons or ambassadors include Chrissie Rucker OBE, Founding Patron of Women Supporting Women and Founder of The White Company, Ruth Chapman, Co-Founder, Matchesfashion.com, Marcia Kilgore, Founder, FitFlop, Melissa Odabash, Founder, Melissa Odabash and Dame Carolyn McCall DBE, Chief Executive, ITV.

The group is aiming to change the lives of 6,500 young women by raising £10 million over the next five years.

Kari Owers, who founded O in Newcastle in 2005 and has since grown the agency to become one of the most awarded outside London, said: “Turning 15 as a business is a big milestone for us and we wanted to go back to our roots and what matters to us as a company.

“Our team wanted to pay it forward to young women less fortunate in our community, so when I saw ‘Women Supporting Women’ we jumped at the chance to get on board.

“Many of the founding supporters of Women Supporting Women are businesswomen I admire greatly, but I had noticed there wasn’t any representation yet in the North East of England, so I knew I wanted to step up as ambassador and help make a difference right here on our doorstep.

“We are looking forward to raising vital funds to help women right here in this region get the support they need to achieve their dreams.”

Rhona Warcup of Prince’s Trust North East said: ”Young women have so much to offer and we have much to gain by encouraging their aspirations. Here in the North East, 41% of our beneficiaries are young women and we are so excited to launch this partnership with Kari and O Communications to work together and see these incredible young women go on to have very successful and happy lives.”