Amy Rew was all set to live a new life in New York when she was introduced to the Lower Eastside Girls Club.
“It was an amazing place,” she says, smiling. “I had this image of a girls’ club being about lemonade and brownie stalls on street corners. But it was a fantastic activist space, integrating education, social care and all the city’s resources to create this brilliant community development model.
“I’d never seen anything like it in my life for anyone, and here was this incredible thing, for girls and women, lifting them out of poverty and giving them opportunities … I wanted to get involved.”
She adds: “When they said, why don’t you build your own club in Glasgow, I knew I wanted to do it. I didn’t know how I was going to do it, but I knew I was going to figure it out.”
Eleven years later, Glasgow Girls Club is a powerful voice for young women and girls in the city, creating spaces where they co-design projects and campaigns alongside architects, planners, and civic partners, shaping safer, fairer cities and opening up employability opportunities.
At the grand final of the 2025 Glasgow Community Champion Awards, run by the Glasgow Times in association with Vertu and supported by Glasgow City Council and Allied Vehicles Charitable Trust, the club won Arts Champion of the Year.
"We're really proud to have won," said long-time member Molly Geddes as the team accepted the trophy.
"We just want to thank all the girls and young women across Glasgow who have taken part and made our arts projects possible."
Since the early days of the club, Amy explains, it has been about reaching the "disenfranchised".
“We asked – who are the girls not going to the youth clubs and how do we make a space for them?" she explains. "Not exclusively for them, but making sure they feel safe and want to get involved.
“What I love most is the real solidarity these women and girls have between each other, that sense of collaboration and support that I saw in New York, that I wanted to cultivate here.”
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She adds: “There are lots of layers to what we do, but the main thing is creating a space where girls feel safe and nurtured. It’s like the anti-Mean Girls, you know? Everyone is welcome, everyone belongs.”
Glasgow Girls Club was not funded at all for the first four years, other than piecemeal partnership grants from other organisations, with Amy working full time elsewhere as an office manager while developing the programmes.
It is now funded by the National Lottery, which has allowed Amy and the team to “think more long term”, she explains.
“We have a tech team, a social enterprise building affordable technology such as apps, which helps to fund our community work and provides training and pathways into digital careers,” adds Amy.
Recent projects include the short film, Where We Stop, which explores emotionally abusive relationships, and a billboard takeover around Glasgow highlighting the everyday sexism young women face.
Actor Molly Geddes, who appeared in the Netflix drama The Bombing of Pan Am 103, wrote and directed Where We Stop. She credits Glasgow Girls Club as her “springboard” into the industry.
“Where We Stop deals with a very important and delicate subject,” she says. “The fact Glasgow Girls Club trusted me to take the lead in making it was incredibly empowering. They believed in me when I didn’t fully believe in myself.”
Heidi Campbell was volunteering with Glasgow Women’s Aid when she first met Amy and the Glasgow Girls Club team.
“I was running focus groups for girls and young women, so when I heard about the billboard project, I wanted to get involved immediately,” says Heidi, who is 18.
“I’m a domestic abuse survivor. I’m passionate about helping other young women who have had similar experiences.”
Heidi, from Bridgeton, adds: “Being part of Glasgow Girls Club helped me recover. If I can do that for other young women, that would be my dream job.”
Sophie Thomson joined Glasgow Girls Club when she was 14.
“I come from a disadvantaged background,” she explains. “My dad had been in prison, my mum was bringing us up on our own, it was difficult.
“I had spoken about my experience and about wanting to make an impact, and my local housing association put me in touch with the club. It had a huge impact on me.”
Ten years later, and now a trainee lawyer, Sophie, 25, is now a director with Glasgow Girls Club, providing one to one mentoring and support to some of the most vulnerable women who come through its doors.
“I think when you’re young, and going through things that are really difficult, it feels easier to talk to someone who has had similar circumstances,” she says.
“I can talk to them about what I went through. Lots of girls haven’t spoken to anyone about what they’re going through until they come here, and it can feel isolating. I hear so many of them say – I thought I was alone.
Sophie, who is from Royston adds: “They’re not alone. We’re a strong community here.”
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