<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Skateboarding is a positive and empowering activity, especially for young girls and women gxrls; and it’s a great tool to develop leadership. That’s why last year, Skateistan joined up with Women Win (an NGO that focuses on empowering women through sport) to launch the first round of the ROLL Models program. The aim of ROLL Models is to empower the next generation of women leaders through leadership training and seed grants. A total of 26 womxn were selected to be part of the 2020 ROLL Models program and carry out their own skateboarding projects for girls and women&nbsp; in Greece, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium.&nbsp;</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>At the beginning, the plan was for all the ROLL Models to&nbsp; travel to Berlin for the first ever ROLL Models Leadership Camp. However, due to the current COVID-19 situation, travel wasn’t possible and many people were unable to carry out their projects as planned. This meant that the camp was adjusted to an online webinar format .</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>

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<p><span><span><span><span><em><span>“All the ROLL Models showed so much resilience, creativity and support towards each other and as a result most of them managed to adapt their projects to the current situation, however, this was not the case for everyone, and some projects had to be postponed.”&nbsp;</span></em></span></span></span></span></p>
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<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Despite the pandemic, there were however some great skateboarding projects for girls carried out in 2020, so we thought it was a good idea to share the experiences of some of our 2020 ROLL Models. We recently spoke with a handful of 2020 ROLL Models and asked them to tell us about their experiences and reflections. We believe that they have much to contribute to the 2021 ROLL Models participants, who will be selected in coming weeks. We are excited to share the first ROLL Model story in this blog series with you below!</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>

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