Baldragon Academy pupil Ashley wins McManus award for campaign tackling sexual abuse and harassment

Teenager Ashley Henderson helps fellow Dundee girls recognise healthy relationships and talk about sexual abuse and harassment.

Now the Baldragon Academy pupil’s work with the Oor Fierce Girls movement has won her the Lord Provost McManus Citizenship Award for 2022.

As a founding member of the Dundee campaign, Ashley, 17, helped develop toolkits for young people, parents and professionals to aid conversations about abuse and toxic relationships.

So when the winner of the citizenship award – presented to a Dundee pupil in recognition of work in school and the wider community – was announced at a ceremony in St Paul’s Academy, Ashley was the worthy winner.

Runners-up were Samantha Bruce, of Craigie High School, and Casey Small, of St Paul’s Academy.

School captain Ashley, who is heading to Strathclyde University to study English and journalism in September, was also commended for being an excellent role model to fellow pupils at Baldragon and for her drive and determination.

She said she was “very, very surprised” to win and that the other nominees had done “incredible work”.

But she added: “I am immensely proud of myself.”

Winning the prize, she said, helped to validate and publicise the work of Oor Fierce Girls, an experience she said had enriched her own final years in school as well as empowering countless other girls.

She said: “It’s been the driving force for so much positivity in my life, and winning this award is the cherry on top of that cake.

It was in June last year that she helped to launch the Oor Fierce Girls toolkits with other girls and young women from Dundee schools, Dundee and Angus College and Dundee University.

The kits provide materials to facilitate conservations about peer sexual abuse and relationship concerns, and to ensure girls and young woman know where to go for help.

Oor Fierce Girls is a joint project between NSPCC Scotland, Dundee City Council and YWCA Scotland, the Young Women’s Movement.

The Lord Provost McManus Citizenship Award is named after Maurice McManus, who was Lord Provost of Dundee between 1960 and 1968.

Another former Baldragon Academy pupil, Jay Hunter, was last year’s winner.