Kisha Bradley AKA #girlswithdrills

“Inclusion happens when all people know an opportunity exists”

Inclusion is an attitude to consciously be open to ideas that come from outside of our settled ways of thinking or feeling. It’s about making a decision that comes from a place of love, of caring for others. When you place inclusivity at the center of how you live, it has great power to heal, elevate new voices, and change the narrative of who belongs“Inclusion isn’t always easy to talk about. I’m not about quick wins or answers I’m just here to tell my story and how I see it today”Kisha Bradley AKA #girlswithdrills is an engineer and activist for diversity in innovation, but that’s not what she wanted to be when she was a kid. When Kisha was little, she wanted to be the president, or one of Destiny’s Child, or maybe even an astronaut.Kisha grew up in America in a poor family in a majority white town, her and her brother were the only mixed race people in the whole population. In her teens she found a leaflet about college (or uni, for Brits!) and decided that’s exactly what she wanted to do. It was going to cost thousands, something her family could not afford but she got straight As and spent the next three years discovering colleges, before attending herself.“This isn’t a picture of me graduating it’s a picture of the first time I felt bad ass in my own skin. It’s the closest I’ve got to feeling like Beyoncé.”Kisha graduated as an engineer and upon moving to Sheffield and discovered that entrepreneurship wasn’t just for middle aged men with a bit of cash in their pocket.“I needed to know that opportunity existed, that it was accessible to me and that I was capable of achieving it”Kisha created Bright Box Makerspace in Sheffield, to help socially excluded young people can access making. Kisha and her team go communities to help kids discover their potential through making, maths and science. They’re supported and given the space and opportunity to use their own voices and discover their own skills. The kids gain confidence and skills in their own communities, opportunity comes to them through Bright Box Makerspace.Kisha has also cofounded #girlswithdrills. For the #girlswithdrills team it’s all about fighting for inclusivity. It’s important to have role models who the kids can identify with, to go into communities so kids can access them and to give kids the agency to discover things for themselves.“Inclusion happens when all people know an opportunity exists, they know it’s something they can take advantage of, they understand they have the power within themselves to make it happen … it’s about them not about you.”Words by Molly McGreevy.