The heart of Her Cycling Connections is #ToGetHerCycling.
Her Cycling Connections
Her Cycling Connections started with a bicycle riding group of 10 mothers at Hilltop Public School. The benefits of social riding enhance the existing development of bike riding of well-being and identity. In connecting with these women, the power of bike riding and creating stories that form the basis of learning to ride, loving to ride, and riding to live; Addventageous through funding from Bicycle NSW to establish Her Cycling Connections.
This program runs for women, by women and aims to challenge the misperceptions about bike safety, accessibility, and adversities women face when it comes to riding a bike.
Her Cycling Connections empowers women by increasing their confidence, self-worth and holistic wellbeing in an affordable and approachable way. Women are increasingly disengaged within their community through cultural barriers, structural and frictional unemployment, financial difficulties, health issues, domestic violence, and isolation in general. While many other programs offer support for these women, few can also provide vocational training, mentoring, and both mental and physical fitness in one program.
Through Her Cycling Connections, Addventageous aims to intervene at an educational level to empower, equip and educate female riders. Her Cycling Connections is the bridge between awareness, education, and employment pathways that women need to ride safer, ride more often, and ride with confidence.
Her Rides takes beginners into adept riders from an individual to group environment. This gives a supportive space for social exercise, promoting sustainably viable transport. By exploring greater road confidence, experienced riders are taught vocational skills to lead confidently and equip them with the right tools to become a #RideLeadHer.
Learning to ride correctly is fundamental to overcoming the barriers that stop women from choosing to ride each day. Learning to maintain the bike and see it as a form of potential opportunity is the next step. Her Workshops perform two functions: to equip women with the skills needed to maintain bikes and promote bike safety while also transferring the soft skills of leadership, tour planning and group management to see the women come full circle, leading rides of their own with Addventageous’ tourism partner, Parramatta Bike Tours. Through recommendations in partnerships, Her Workshop guides a #RideLeadHer to gain the correct accreditation and training to become employed as a ride leader.
Addventageous is an advocacy body for empowerment of all vulnerable members of the community. It is through Her Say that the understanding of the user is delivered to government bodies and community leading organisations that are able to make the change needed to make riding a viable solution for many problems of accessibility and equal opportunity. By giving Her a Say, Addventageous can help push change through community sectors at a systematic level. The first push comes from the pedal.
