The Shona Project in partnership with Media Central’s youth stations are searching for eight SHINE HEROES whose unique and uplifting stories will be heard at SHINE Festival, an online event celebrating female empowerment.
SHINE Festival is an empowering event for the girls of Ireland, bringing young women together to hear from a panel of inspirational speakers, interact in a safe and positive space, to celebrate themselves, and each other.
A firm favourite at the annual event has been SHINE HEROES. Schools and radio listeners are invited to nominate a teenage girl who has shown courage, kindness, resilience, or community spirit.
For this year’s SHINE HEROES, Beat 102-103 has been joined by its Media Central youth radio station counterparts from around the country, Spin 103.8, Spin South West and iRadio. The radio stations have partnered with Life Style Sports to make this year’s Shine Heroes a truly national event. The partnership was brokered by Core Sponsorship and Mediaworks.
Listeners will nominate two SHINE HEROES from each radio station. All eight girls will feature prominently across the youth stations over a fortnight. They will then go forward to represent their region, at the national online event, SHINE 2021 where their unique uplifting stories will be shared and celebrated.
For the last two years, award winning social enterprise, The Shona Project has worked with regional radio station Beat 102-103 and other partners to deliver SHINE. This was a one day, annual, on location gathering in Waterford city that attracted over 1,200 transition year girls from across the South East of Ireland.
Due to Covid 19, a large-scale on-site event of this nature is no longer possible, but the pandemic has prompted organisers to go bigger. Shine 2021 has morphed into an inspirational, online three-day festival, created by young girls and women for young girls all over Ireland.
With a combined reach of just under ONE MILLION weekly listeners aged 15 years and over, & nearly 3 million social followers, Media Central’s youth stations are ideally positioned to support the Shona Project’s aim of reaching as many teenage girls as possible with its message of empowerment.
Media Central’s Youth Solutions Manager Karen Phelan says “we’re excited that all of our youth brands have joined forces with Life Style Sports and are coming together for SHINE HEROES 2021. The cross-station promotion is going to be such an inspiring experience for girls all over Ireland. Our stations are market leading in each of their territories and combining this reach with their impressive online following and the valuable support of a national reputable brand for young people like Life Style Sports, we’re proud that these youth brands are using their dominant platform to support The Shona Project on such an important mission.”
Sharron McCann, Director of Buying at Life Style Sports says “at Life Style Sports, we’re delighted to partner with Media Central and Shine in our ongoing efforts to support, empower and inspire Irish women and girls. We feel passionate about body positivity and inclusivity. Sport and exercise are a great benefit to strong mental health and resilience, so we’re really excited to be part of this movement, supporting such important topics for young Irish girls.”
Tammy Darcy, Founder of The Shona Project said “At Shona, we have seen first-hand the challenges that our young women are experiencing. Covid has increased levels of anxiety, stress, and isolation. We wanted to create an event at which everyone who attends, feels seen, appreciated, and represented. SHINE is a wonderful event, and this year, as we go virtual, we have brought together what is quite possibly the biggest gathering of inspirational, authentic, smart, beautiful and real women you’ve ever seen.”
Unsurprisingly, Shine 2021 kicks off on March 8th, International Women’s day and will involve over 80 speakers across 6 stages. Organisers promise Shine 2021 will be a highly interactive experience with a sprinkling of performances from some of Ireland’s best known contemporary female artists.
Society needs to continue to be committed to championing and supporting women. Media Central’s youth stations are honoured to play a key role with SHINE HEROES 2021 which will help shine a spotlight on some of Ireland’s great women of the future.
