Volunteering at Women’s Community Matters

Volunteers are at the heart of our service here at Women’s Community Matters.  The day-to-day life of the centre would be impossible without their hard work and dedication.  Volunteers undertake a wide variety of roles including staffing reception, facilitating groups, offering one-to-one support, cleaning, managing the clothes bank, admin, gardening, sewing, fundraising – the list is endless!  We are currently looking to recruit volunteers to become part of the ever-growing team here at the centre and we hope you might be just the person we need!

 Are you interested in supporting women from the local area?  Do you hope to meet new people and give something back to your community?  Do you have particular strengths such as cooking, cleaning, computing or admin skills?  Or maybe you want to learn some new skills?  Are you hoping to build a career in support work or have you retired but feel compelled to continue giving?  Whatever you have to offer you have a place here with us!

To become a volunteer at Women’s Community Matters you simply fill in our short ‘Volunteer Registration Form’.  Once we receive your registration we will arrange for you to come and have a tour of the centre with one of our staff members.  If you decide the centre has something to offer you a 20-minute informal interview will be arranged at your convenience; this will be a chat about what you hope to offer the centre as well as what we can offer you!

 

Following this you will complete an induction and have the opportunity to shadow existing volunteers to learn how the centre works.  We also have on-going training available throughout the year around confidentiality, boundaries, safeguarding and listening skills, with potential for further training from other services. 

 

If you are interested in becoming part of our team at Women’s Community Matters please contact Katy, our Development Worker, for a ‘Volunteer Registration Form’:

Email: katy@womenscommunitymatters.org

Telephone: 01229 311102

We look forward to hearing from you!

 

 

 

 

Our Beautiful Women

Our Beautiful Women course has just come to an end for the third time.  Once again it was an honour to share the journey with a group of women who were brave enough to open up and let others truly see them.  I cannot put into words how incredibly powerful it is to be alongside a group of women as they bond and share stories; stories so deep and meaningful that they often bring you close to tears.  I’m happy to say that the group have formed friendships that will hopefully continue into the future and it is wonderful to see them in the centre together, getting involved in Chinwaggers, volunteering and catching up!

The ladies kindly wrote a few words about their experience of the course for us to share with you, so here they are:

 

“Doing the Beautiful Women course has been fantastic, making new friends, sharing stories, which is a big honour.  My time spent getting to know new people have been the best.  I have learnt a lot about myself and a lot about how society is about women, even though I knew that mostly, I now know there is a lot more to it.

The course has given me the confidence to be JUST ME.”

 –        Sue Wearing

 

“I feel that Beautiful Women has given me the confidence to be who I am and that I don’t need to change for anyone.  Beautiful Women has also given me the ability to open up to others as it made me feel safe.”

–        Siobhan Seymour

 “Going to Beautiful Women has made me realise the potential that I have to grow and develop more as an individual.  I have begun to accept myself and bring down my walls, allowing others to share and gain from my experiences.

It has been a great journey almost as if I was discovering myself and friends all over again.  It was challenging in parts both personally and as a group but we all helped and supported each other through it.

Friendships developed and flourished and I’ll be forever grateful for that.

Everyone needs to remember that you are enough.

Thank you to all the women that allowed me to share this experience with them – it was a privilege.

 –        Ayiesha Emms

 

The group are going on to complete the Beautiful Me course in January 2015, a 6-week Beautiful Women follow-on course.  If any ladies who shared this experience are listening, I want to thank you once more for taking the risk and being vulnerable.  I hope to see you all soon and I am really look forward to meeting more Beautiful Women in the coming weeks! 

To sign up to Beautiful Women simply ring Women’s Community Matters on 01229 311102 or contact Katy via email: katy@womenscommunitymatters.org

Much love to you all,

Katy: Beautiful Women Facilitator 

A project funded by...

Do you ever reflect on the world or your place in it? Do you hope to feel stronger and more confident?

Women’s Community Matters: Beautiful Women

 

 

 

Do you ever reflect on the world or your place in it?  Do you long for connections with other people?  Do you hope to meet new people but aren’t sure how to go about it?  Do you hope to feel stronger and more confident?  

 

Beautiful Women could be for you!  The 6-week personal development course has been running at Women’s Community Matters since February 2014.  The sessions explore the world and our place in it through topics such as Beautiful Women, Embracing Difference, Who am I, My Journey, Love & Belonging and Reflections.  They are discussion focussed but also include group and individual activities to prompt reflection and connection!    

 

 

So, what do our Beautiful Women think?

…"I have really felt a difference in my self since being in the sessions. I've enjoyed sharing with the group and learning that I am not alone." 

…"I have learnt not to let people walk all over me and to respect myself" 

…"I'm getting stronger every day" 

…“Very empowering & humbling.  A privilege to hear other women share their innermost feelings”

…"I am happy to have met some people that are like me and in the same boat" 

…"It is good to be reminded that as a person, you do count"

 

 

Start your journey with Beautiful Women today by calling Women’s Community Matters on 01229 311102 and leaving your name and number.  We will give you a call to give you more information and confirm the start date.  The next course is due to start on Wednesday 12^th November 2014, 1pm – 3pm.

 



Handmade gifts after every session

 

For now, a farewell message from one Beautiful Woman to another:

 

"After all those years as a woman hearing ‘not thin enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough, not this enough, not that enough,’ almost overnight I woke up one morning and thought, ‘I am enough.’ – Anna Quindlen

 

 

We are really looking forward to meeting you soon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Services...

Clothes Bank

At W.C.M we have a free clothes bank which provides clothing for women and children.  The clothes bank is open Mon, Weds and Fridays, although access may be available at other times on request.

 

 

Free Legal Surgery

We also offer a free legal surgery clinic on a Wednesday morning with Hafiza Suleman.  This is available from 10am and 12 noon.  Please ring to confirm session is available and booking is advisable.

 

Please contact 01229 311102 or email reception@womenscommunitymatters.org for any other information.



Is vision for you...or someone you know?

The Vision programme at WCM began in September with a sense of optimism and pride; pride for the quality of the programme and optimism from all the participants in the group including myself. Vision is a 10 week life skills course delivered in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, utilizing a safe, comfortable space and a non-judgemental policy. We encourage the feeling of ‘having a coffee with friends’ , safe in the knowledge that they are able to discuss whatever they wish to , secure in the knowledge that they are in a confidential environment .

Vision looks at life style choices as well as life skills, identifying pitfalls and opportunities as well as how to access help. We began with discussing health and wellbeing, the watch words being ‘the good, the bad and the ugly in the context of food and drink. That was a lively sessions which saw us share ideas on how to make our favourite dishes healthier (it’s not just the Hairy Dieters who can figure that one out!).

We aim to signpost on to other agencies as well as highlighting the many forms of support available at Women’s Community Matters. For a small area we are very well provided for, over 400 organisations operate in the Barrow area, offering services from practical support to free play schemes. Hand in hand with Women’s Community Matters ethos, the Vision programme offers other life style choices such as becoming involved in their community and accessing healthcare , dentistry being a major concern in our area .

The Vision programme can be accessed at any point in the 10 week rolling programme and can be used by a variety of different agencies who refer in to us. At the moment I am working hard to raise the profile of the course in the local area, it being a free to access course, I hope will engaged many of the relevant agencies. Who would not like a free resource?!

The feedback so far has been positive and I’m pleased to say the women on the course seem to be making good connections with each other and are comfortable enough to talk freely. I am confident that one of the participants has the potential to progress to peer mentoring which would such an achievement, both for the individual and the programme.

I am enjoying delivering the programme and engaging with our clients, promoting all our fabulous services and working with an amazing team. I do feel I have been fortunate to land the perfect role and am very much looking forward to continuing to develop the programme to meet the needs of women in the Barrow in Furness area.

Rachael Hoggarth   Project Worker

The Pig of Happiness!

Good morning...a very lovely morning it is too :-)

It's been a busy couple of weeks and lots has changed here at the Women's centre...

We have a new member of staff (not the one from my last blog post!), Rachael, who is delivering our Vision Programme for Women, three student social workers (Sam, Sarah and Kayleigh) and a new Development Worker (picture and info to follow) who will start in two weeks.

I'm just about to write a report this morning for the Sir John Fisher Foundation who very kindly gave us some money last November to support our Growing Together project.  The project was about sharing and enjoying together the process of growing our own fruit and vegetables and planting flowers for us all to share.  The group went seed bombing (no photos as all undercover!!), started vegetables off growing on our window sills, took them home and planted them out, and got involved in the allotment and our planter at the Green Heart Den Community Garden.  A really great project that is now going from strength to strength (with all the usual hiccups!) thanks to the wonderful support and faith of the Sir John Fisher Foundation.

Some of our first harvest...



 

 

I did start writing this first thing this morning but I can see I am going to be typing 'good afternoon' before I finish!!  So...so I don't need to also write 'good night', I will say good bye for now and end by telling you, all is well here at the Women's Centre.  The are many wonderful women visiting us each today and sharing their stories and experiences. 

 

I have just spoken to Sam, one of our very wonderful student placements, who rang to follow up on a lady she has been working with (despite the fact she is not supposed to be here and is not working today)...and I am waiting for Charlotte, another very lovely lady who has been working with some of our volunteers and who has set up another great opportunity for our volunteers....

...there is the second session of our Vision Programme going on this morning and a very nice lady from Barrow Borough Council has just called over to tell us about how to register to vote...

...Kayleigh, another student placement, is busy working with a lady in the reception area and another volunteer is bust preparing our Rosa Parks Room for a meeting...

This is why I love our Centre quite so much and am amazed every day at how many wonderful women there are here!

 

What can I say except, I love the Pig of Happiness!

 

 

 

 

We are looking to appoint a Development Worker to join our team...could it be you?

Good morning all

It is a little while since we have posted on our blog but we thought the time was right to start keeping everyone a little more up to date with what's been happening here at the Women's Centre on Duke Street in Barrow.

First things first...

We are looking to recruit an enthusiastic woman to join our team as a Development Worker.  The post is for 16 hours per week with the possibility of the contract being up to 3 years dependent on us achieving our outcomes in the first year.  If you are interested and think you have the skills, drive and attitude please click on the link below to view the details of the post and details of how to apply.

Job description and application details for Development Worker post


Things have been wonderfully busy and each day we seem to be ticking plenty of things off our lists of things to do!  All being well we should start posting on here once again.  This will be great for us as everyone is great a giving us feedback...things that we need to do more of...things we should stop...and lots of ideas for improvement. 

I'm looking forward to hearing from all those interested in the Development Worker post and also to speaking to everyone on here again soon.

Bye for now, Rebecca :-)

New contact details

Good afternoon all

It has been a little while since we've posted on here as we have been busy getting ourselves up and running!

I think we are now ready to share our new web address with the world an hopefully we can start posting regularly to keep everyone up to date with what's happening.

We have some new contact details...just in case anyone still has the old ones!  They are as follows:

Phone: 01229 311102 (odd number I know but I assure you it works and we also have an answer machine)

E-mail: reception@womenscommunitymatters.org for general enquiries

rebecca@womenscommunitymatters.org for confidential enquiries

Website: www.womenscommunitymatters.org - we always welcome feedback so please let us know what you think :-)

In person: Suite 1, 22a Duke Street, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria LA14 1HH

Our door is the one on the right.  Buzz the bell and we'll let you in!

For anyone who doesn't know where we are...we are in the old Abbey FM studios above the Market Hall.  The door to get in is next to the Market entrance on Duke Street under the glass roof/canopy.

This picture shows you the close up of the door.






Well, it's goodbye for now and we're looking to have some more information again soon from some of the volunteers who staff the Centre :-)