The Tuesday club quietly shaping Ipswich's girls

Girls, Where You At? (GWYA), is a programme run by the Ipswich based charity Future Female Society (FFS) for girls aged 12 to 19. Over a 10-week course the girls learn skills in radio, music and video production, performance, poetry and animation.

The sessions run from 17:00 to 19:00, term time only, in a room upstairs at Tower Street. On this particular evening the town's floods had left the girls waiting for their facilitators, the rain had been hitting the windows and the inside was now a soundproof safe chamber. One of them exclaimed with a line that says a lot about the place: "This is like a bonding experience now."

'There's always something new'

"Like there's always something new," says Betty, a member with Ethiopian and Eritrean heritage. "One week we could be doing dance and then the next we could be doing like drawing and arts and crafts or we could just be talking about literally anything, and it is just nice."

"Everyone's really sweet and everyone cares for each other," she says. "Even though we all have different interests and different lives outside the club, we all come into one." Although the programme, on paper, focuses on media skills - the heart of it lies within the relationships the girls build.

The opportunities the girls get involved in vary in range and can be quite unexpected. Through GWYA, Betty met a musician her mother admires, and came away with an autograph. "It was a really cool opportunity that I don't think I would have gotten in any other clubs," she says.

The women who have watched them grow

Angelle Joseph, has been involved with the club from the very beginning. "I have been at Girls, Where You At? since the very first session," she says. "In fact, the session before it was even a real session, I was there."

Over the years, Angelle has watched the club transform itself around whoever walks through that door, regardless of circumstances and regardless of weather conditions. "When we first started we were based in another place that had a radio station, so it was very radio focused," she recalls. "We then had a group that were a lot of them singers, so we did a lot of music-based activities… then we had a lot of people that are arty and acting. So we have definitely gone through doing lots of different things, but it always just comes back to hanging out, having fun, and using media to empower each other and learn new skills."

Suzanne Chung, joined in 2025 with a background in media. When asked what kept her at Girls Where Ya At?: "I've stayed because of you girls" she says, "Seeing girls who came here when I started and confidence levels growing and really getting involved in more leadership, and seeing you create a safe space for each other — it's been really nice."

More than a youth club

GWYA is one strand of Future Female Society, the charity founded in 2016 by Kim Trotter after her own experience of isolation as a young single mother. The organisation works with women and girls across Suffolk, building confidence and combating loneliness. GWYA carries that mission to the next generation, mentoring girls through creative careers with the guiding mantra: "If you can see it, you can be it."

For many members, the appeal starts as something social. Maria, who joined in September 2024, puts it plainly: "I wanted more friends and now I have more friends." Sky came along because of her older sister and stayed for the friendships. The longest-standing members, Amanda and Alfreda, have been coming since 2022 — self proclaimed "seniors," — and are clear with their appreciation towards the facilitators who "help and uplift and support the girls here."

For Angelle, the work has a wider purpose. Media and music industries, she says, have "a massive disparity when it comes to gender," and GWYA's answer is to put girls behind the cameras, on the sound desks, hosting and performing. Through the programmes, the girls have found aspects of media that stick, from Amanda, who found a love of presenting after hosting a game show at Suffolk New College, to Maria, the group's "resident DJ."

The club has tackled serious subjects too, with workshops from police officers and conversations about street harassment, though Angelle is keen the heavier work never crowds out the joy. She sees the group not fitting into the natural stereotype of the contemporary teenager, and she does not underestimate what it means locally. "It's really nice to actually have power in making a little dent, even if it's small, in our community where we live," she says.

A fundraiser, and a future

Keeping those Tuesday sessions running, however, takes money. The girls are staging a fundraiser of their own at the Hidden Garden Café on 11 July 2026 - with the bunting from that rainy evening bound for its walls.

Part party, part talent show, the day promises live music, dancing, games, face painting and, as one member put it, "lots of food." Entry works on a pay-what-you-can basis. The goal, in their own words, is simply "to raise money for the group."

The bottom line

The work happens quietly, every Tuesday in glitter, conversation and shared pizza as Girls, Where You At? provides a space for shared confidence. In a town where, as its facilitators argue, young women too often go unseen and unsupported, that steady work adds up to something - and on 11 July, they are inviting the rest of the town to see it for themselves.

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