Empowering Futures: Yo-Bar Joins the International Women's Day Giving Movement to Support Girls from Oz

At Yo-Bar, we're all about showing up with purpose, with joy, and with the kind of energy that creates real change. This year, we were proud to take part in the International Women’s Day (IWD) GIVING movement and contribute to their 2025 campaign, Accelerate Action.

It’s a theme that calls for more than awareness. It asks individuals, brands, and communities to take meaningful steps toward gender equality urgently and unapologetically. It’s about turning good intentions into real-world outcomes. For us, that meant using our platform, our community, and our stores to support a cause doing incredible work for young women across Australia.

Throughout March and into April, Yo-Bar stores came together to raise funds in support of Girls from Oz, a charity that brings performing arts-based education to girls in remote Australian communities. With donation boxes at the counter, point-of-sale contributions, and a direct donation from our company, we were proud to be part of raising a genuinely impactful amount. It was a reminder of what can happen when a community shows up with intention.

Accelerate Action: What It Means for Us

For many businesses, support of International Women’s Day is symbolic. It’s a gesture made once a year. But this year’s theme challenged us to go deeper. Accelerate Action reminded us that progress doesn’t move slowly by nature. It moves slowly when it’s put off, deprioritised, or viewed as someone else’s responsibility.

We didn’t want to be passive participants in a feel-good moment. We wanted to play an active role. Partnering with IWD and supporting Girls from Oz allowed us to turn our brand values into action. We want to be a business that doesn't just speak to inclusion but actively contributes to it.

                     Source: Yuliya Hrelik, Vecteezy, 2025

This theme pushed us to think about what action looks like for a brand like ours. For us, it meant inviting our customers to get involved, using our in-store environment to create awareness, and highlighting the work of an organisation making a lasting difference.

Why Girls from Oz?

Girls from Oz exists to shift outcomes for young women in regional and remote parts of Australia. In areas where access to education, arts, and enrichment is limited, they provide performance-based learning that builds confidence, self-expression, and ambition.

Source: Girl from Oz, LinkedIn

Participants learn skills through singing, dance, and storytelling. Many are given opportunities to travel outside their hometowns and experience environments they’ve never been part of. These moments are more than just special. They’re transformative. They help girls see the world differently and, more importantly, see themselves differently.

This is what inclusion looks like in action. Removing barriers. Opening doors. Giving young women the chance to imagine and pursue a life that may not have felt possible before.

What We Saw In-Store

The campaign didn’t just raise money. It created moments. Customers paused to ask what the donation boxes were for. Staff felt proud to share the story behind the campaign. Families donated together. It turned a simple trip to get frozen yoghurt into something more intentional.

Yo-Bar became a place for more than just a treat. It became a space for participation and purpose. These everyday interactions became part of something larger, and that’s a powerful thing to be part of.

Looking Ahead

We’re incredibly proud to have taken part in the 2025 IWD GIVING initiative. It reminded us that real action doesn’t have to be loud or dramatic. It can be small, consistent, and rooted in community.

As we continue growing, we’ll keep looking for ways to act with purpose. Whether through future partnerships, in-store campaigns, or the everyday choices we make as a brand, our commitment is to keep showing up.

Progress doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when people, teams, and businesses decide that the future should look different than the past. That’s the kind of momentum we want to be part of.

To everyone who contributed, asked questions, or shared a moment with us during this campaign, thank you. This was your impact too.