About Us
Turtle Dove Cambridge was created to fill a gap in youth support work.
With one very specific aim, Kate Nation founded Turtle Dove to improve the future of young women who are or are at risk of becoming unemployed through a lack of confidence or experience to seek employment.
This mission was driven by Kate’s first-hand experience in the youth sector where she saw the effects of a system where there are twice as many young women not currently searching for jobs compared to their male peers.
She also wanted to create a safe, female-only space that offers young women an opportunity to flourish away from the pressure of their male contemporaries, where research shows they often do not perform to the best of their abilities.
Having grown organically over the past few years, Kate has ambitious plans to reach more young women than before, offering them the opportunity to strengthen their self-confidence and work towards building successful futures.
By providing them with opportunities in hospitality, teamwork, and a defined structure, these young women can gain invaluable life experience.
Our team of young women assist with small-scale events, working on and off-site to ensure events run smoothly and seamlessly. We combine our service by working in partnership with various local caterers, restaurants, other social enterprises and community groups, as well as supplying our very own vintage China hire.
Why Young Women? Why Work Experience?
Research carried out by Intentionality CIC for Turtle Dove Cambridge found that in 2015 there were 308,000 inactive young women classified as not in education, employment, or training (NEET), compared with 164,000 young men.
This disparity may be linked to factors such as low confidence, early pregnancy, and experiences of domestic violence or abuse, which can hinder young women’s participation in and access to education, employment or training.
A report by the Charity Education and Employers Task Force indicates that young people who have access to work experience opportunities are five times less likely to drop out of school or training.
