The Tribune

Nearly 300 girls recently received some crucial financial literacy advice courtesy of CIBC FirstCaribbean’s Treasury and Finance Department, as part of STRAW Inc’s 15th annual Girls’ Leadership Conference.

STRAW stands for “Strengthening, Transforming, Restoring, and Affirming young Women”, and that is exactly what took place at the conference, which this year had the theme “Girls Empowered – #SpeakUp.”

According to its executive director and president, Therena Cunningham, STRAW is “a community-based youth development organisation where we engage under-served adolescent girls and young women.”

“The point of this year’s theme was to allow the young women to have a platform to be able to identify the voices they hear within themselves on a daily basis.”

Ms Cunningham founded STRAW 20 years ago. She said the organisation was “birthed out of a dream to give back to the community.”

“One of our biggest impacts has been our annual Girls’ Leadership Conference. As a premier leadership training event, it allows young women the opportunity to converge, network, build camaraderie, and learn tips, tools, and techniques that will help them identify leadership potential, hone their skills, dream bigger, and actualise their potential and their desire to be better,” she said.

“We believe this conference is a training ground for them, and we’ve partnered with other community-based organisations and financial institutions, in particular CIBC FirstCaribbean, who has been a consistent sponsor for the past several years.”

As part of their partnership with STRAW, CIBC FirstCaribbean’s Beulah Arthur and Stacia Williamson visited the girls’ seminar at the Baha Mar Convention Centre to help the young ladies understand and manage the business of bank accounts, savings, and other financial instruments.

Ms Arthur said: “It gives me great pleasure to be able to partner with this group to support their cause. I’ve presented to the girls for about three years, and I’m honoured to be able to represent CIBC FirstCaribbean and impart some of the knowledge that will help ready these young ladies to meet the real world, in terms of looking at it from a financial perspective.”

CIBC FirstCaribbean also presented the organisation with a cheque donation towards the cost of the conference.

STRAW hosted their 15th Annual Girls’ Leadership Conference in honour of International Women’s Day. Earlier last month, CIBC FirstCaribbean also hosted a women’s workshop at the Salvation Army in celebration of the occasion.