70 students from four Mid Ulster schools impact local community through SistersIN
More than 17,500 people across Northern Ireland have been positively impacted by a group of 756 young women who led almost 500 community projects in the past year, according to a new report released today by SistersIN.
SistersIN is a leadership and mentoring programme that empowers, educates and inspires young women aged 16-18 by pairing them with mentors from across business, public life and the community. Rather than waiting for leadership opportunities to find them, participants are encouraged to identify issues they care about and create projects that make a tangible difference.
70 students from schools in Mid-Ulster, including St Patrick’s College, Maghera, along with St Pius X College, St Mary’s Grammar School and Sperrin Integrated College, Magherafelt, were part of the 2025-2026 programme.
In the last 12 months, more than 750 SistersIN participants designed and delivered 480 leadership projects through the charity’s programmes, contributing 9,060 hours of activity to their schools and local communities. More than a third (38%) of SistersIN participants created entirely new initiatives that will continue beyond the current programme, showing leadership in practice, not just in theory, and leaving a lasting legacy in their schools and communities.
A teacher from Sperrin Integrated College said, “A transformative, inspirational and fundamentally important programme which makes me proud to be a female leader who is developing young female leaders.”
To understand the impact of its work in communities across Northern Ireland, SistersIN commissioned research involving more than 750 participants, alongside their teachers and mentors. The findings show that charity’s programmes are helping young women develop the confidence, skills and ambition to lead. The report shows:
Girls who started the SistersIN programme with lower confidence and self-awareness showed three times greater improvement than girls who started with higher baseline scores.
92% of pupils supported by SistersIN feel more prepared for the transition from education into the professional world following their mentoring and job-shadow day.
Two fifths (42%) of pupils taking part in a SistersIN programme feel a clear boost in their ability to lead and are actively looking for opportunities to use their voice.
The report also shows that teachers reported significant changes in the classroom. Virtually all teachers that took part in the SistersIN research (%) said they had seen measurable improvements in pupils' self-belief, communication, resilience, self-leadership and teamwork thanks to the charity’s work.
SistersIN participants design a wide range of projects aimed as part of their support from the charity. These projects provide an insight into the issues young women in Northern Ireland are most motivated to address.
Mental health and wellbeing emerged as the most common project theme, featuring in one in six initiatives. Charity and fundraising came a close second, followed by clubs and extracurricular activities, mentoring, community impact and sport.
The report suggests that when young women are given the opportunity to lead, they choose projects that strengthen both their schools and their wider communities while addressing the issues they believe matter most.
The programme also widened access to leadership opportunities, with participation from young women living in deprived areas* increasing by 37% this year. The growth reflects SistersIN's belief that opportunity should not be determined by background or postcode.