First North East ambassador for Prince’s Trust ‘Women Supporting Women’ initiative appointed

Kari Owers, founder of creative and public relations agency, O Communications, has become the first North East ambassador of the new Prince’s Trust initiative – Women Supporting Women.

Coinciding with the agency’s 15th year in business, Kari has entered into a three-year partnership with the Prince’s Trust, supporting its initiative to help empower young women to achieve their ambitions.

The mark the beginning of the partnership, O Communications has launched a year-long series of events and staff initiatives to help spread awareness of Women Supporting Women and encourage other companies to get involved.

Made up of female founders, entrepreneurs, businesswomen, professionals and philanthropists who believe that all young women deserve the chance to succeed, Women Supporting Women is a new group that will enable the Prince’s Trust to support more young women through its programmes.

Women supporting the cause as patrons and ambassadors include Chrissie Rucker, founder of The White Company, Ruth Chapman, co-founder of Matchesfashion.com, Marcia Kilgore, founder of FitFlop and Dame Carolyn McCall, chief executive of ITV.

Women Supporting Women is aiming to change the lives of 6500 young women by raising £10 million over the next five years.

Kari Owers, who founded O Communications in 2005, said: “Turning 15 as a business is a big milestone for us and we wanted to go back to our roots and what matters to us as a company.

“Our team wanted to pay it forward to young women less fortunate in our community, so when I saw ‘Women Supporting Women’ we jumped at the chance to get on board.

“Many of the founding supporters of Women Supporting Women are businesswomen I admire greatly, but I had noticed there wasn’t any representation yet in the North East of England, so I knew I wanted to step up as ambassador and help make a difference right here on our doorstep.

“We are looking forward to raising vital funds to help women right here in this region get the support they need to achieve their dreams.”

Rhona Warcup of Prince’s Trust North East said: ”Young women have so much to offer and we have much to gain by encouraging their aspirations.

“Here in the North East, 41 per cent of our beneficiaries are young women and we are so excited to launch this partnership with Kari and O Communications to work together and see these incredible young women go on to have very successful and happy lives.”