Meet ‘PJ’, founder and owner of rePHRASE® (South West). PJ was awarded £1,000 worth of business support as part of BIPC Devon’s “She Started It” campaign, made possible by NatWest.
rePHRASE® offers bespoke Relationships and Sex Education, using a variety of interactive activities and resources to ensure learning is fun, relevant and memorable. rePHRASE® was born out of the desire to provide healthy Relationships and Sex Education, especially to young people, that goes beyond educating about reproduction, risks, and disease. Effective RSE should offer a safe space to explore topics without embarrassment or judgement. Empowering others to make informed choices and develop healthy, respectful relationships, can help young people to be happy, confident and safe when it comes to their experiences of relationships, now and for the rest of their lives and, in turn, positively impact society as a whole.
PJ’s Journey
PJ established this venture following a long-held passion and belief that every young person deserves access to good quality relationships and sex education. “Since the age of 14, I have been interested in working in the field of RSE and attained a Psychology degree with the idea of specialising in the area of sexual therapy. I recall one particular parent’s evening when the teacher (looking rather pale and anxious!), leant forward across the desk and whispered to my parents, “you do realise your daughter wants to be a Sexual Therapist?”, at which point they responded, “Yes, it’s great isn’t it?!”.” Skip forward a number of years and my passion to equip young people with the knowledge and skills to build and maintain healthy relationships, led me to become an accredited Relationships and Sex Educator, facilitating the exploration of RSE topics in a variety of settings.
I first discovered the BIPC, Devon having done some research for business support in the local area and made contact with the local team in June 2021. The business support provided by the BIPC, including the ‘She Started It’ programme has been fantastic…from providing support around building personal confidence as a female founder in business, right through to the practicalities involved in running a business. ⠀
BIPC Devon has helped me hugely whilst setting up my business, I feel the team has very much been on this journey with me especially at the beginning setting up as a female founder in business. The BIPC supported me in a variety of ways including free webinars about specific business-related topics, one-to-one sessions with experts, providing mentors, coaches and a friendly ear to speak to with regard to finding and accessing resources. I hadn’t really used the library much before contacting the BIPC, but I have since gained a very positive view of the provision that can be found at the library (a far cry from my childhood recollections!)
You can find our more about PJ’s work here https://www.rephrasesw.co.uk/ or using the social links below:
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If you’re thinking about starting your own business, get in touch with BIPC Devon now to find out how we can help!