Hackney funding seminar

Earlier today, the development team (and one policy team member!) found themselves in Hackney for the second in a series of local funding seminars which form part of WRC’s Building Futures project. The audience consisted of women from a number of organisations, from Hackney and the surrounding boroughs, who were keen to find out about the various options for sustainable funding.

The first speaker was Eve Oldham, commissioner for Older People’s Services in Hackney, who explained how the commissioning process can work for the voluntary sector and gave a step-by-step guide to the process, from invitation to tender through the to the awarding of the contract. Next was Pippa Judd, Counselling Services Manager at the Threshold project in Brighton. Pippa gave an insight into the challenges of partnership working, from her experience of having to merge with a larger, generic organisation due to loss of funding.

After a quick tea break, we heard from Em Ekong, director of Urban Inclusion, who talked about social enterprise and how it can work for the women’s sector. Em emphasised the importance of thinking creatively when it comes to thinking of possible income generation ideas and that while commercialisation is not appropriate for all organisations, it certainly is something which is worth considering. Finally, WRC’s Supriya Horn gave a short introduction to the world of fundraising from individuals and emphasised that this is a source of funding which is currently underused by the women’s sector. The formal presentations were followed by informal roundtable sessions with the speakers, where the women attending got to ask their own questions and network with one another.

All in all it was a very successful and inspiring morning, which one delegate described as “brilliant and loaded with info!”. Look out for details of our next funding seminar in Tower Hamlets on Friday 13th March!

Stronger Together in the South West

This week WRC Policy Team members travelled south to hold an event near Taunton with the South West Foundation looking at how women’s organisations in this area can better influence their local agenda and get their voices heard. It was a really great opportunity for women from lots of different kinds of organisations to meet and talk about the issues that they face locally and discuss what they can do about it! The event was part of WRC’s Stronger Together project and highlighted the need for women’s groups to work together and support each other when faced with gender discrimination at a local level. Networks like Equality South West’s gender network are already starting to do this.

Women’s Action Network Dorset spoke about their work supporting isolated women through social events and projects, and SEEDS Devon were keen to know about how they could challenge funding decisions and get more involved in local government.

The one thing that really struck me was the huge geographical areas that services have to cover in rural areas like the South West. The differences between the extent of services in the towns and countryside were obvious, however, the experiences of lack of recognition were the same.

We had fun creating our ideal visions of the future which were very colourful and optimistic – let’s hope we can get closer to this through solidarity and challenging decisions that reflect negatively on women!

A forum for change?

As part on WRC’s ongoing interest in the potential of social media (this very blog being a perfect example), I went to the IT Innovation in the Community event, organised by Ealing CVS and DC10. Case studies were used to show how people could make use of technology to engage with local communities. Digital inclusion is vitally important, with ICT being identified as the third skill for life, along with literacy and numeracy. But 75% of socially excluded adults do not use the internet, so we have to be very careful about balancing the opportunities on offer with the danger of excluding the most vulnerable groups.

One workshop showcased Ealing Community Network (ECN), which is piloting online consultation forums to access marginalised groups, by enabling strategic partners to consult with groups on service delivery. There are two forums: one for disabled people and one for Muslim women. The forum for disabled people to consult with Ealing Police has 12 members and is very successful. The Muslim women’s forum (for Ealing Hospital Trust to ask questions about service in both the accident and emergency department and the maternity unit) has 8 members, but it was clear from the outset that the level of support needed to access the forum was high, mainly due to the varying levels of English and IT skills amongst the women. This meant that activity levels were relatively low.

This was a small, but valuable, pilot project and ECN will be following up with a second round of discussions in the new year. It does, though, pose questions about how to reach marginalised groups. It can be a success, as shown by the disabled people’s forum, but the varying levels ‘life skills’ in the Muslim women’s community meant that not as many potential beneficiaries were reached. Nor were their voices heard.

Should the VCS be shifting focus to these kind of initiatives before making sure that basic IT skills are available in the communities we are trying to benefit? This a good question, but not one which should hold us back. This kind of project means that women are being reached who would otherwise not have had their voice heard. While this is not the only way to consult groups, it seems that any responses gathered are valuable. This kind of tool should be used as a way of complementing other methods for consultation and information sharing. The potential in these tools is an opportunity too good to miss!

Is it enough to get more women in power?

Despite losing the election, Sarah Palin's nomination for vice presidential candidate was hailed in some quarters as a victory for women - and even for feminism. But many women (including myself) felt extremely uncomfortable celebrating her nomination - even purely as a victory for women's representation in 'high politics' - given her stance on issues like reproductive rights, gay rights, environmental issues, access to healthcare and support for rape survivors. As Sarah Seltzer at the Huffington Post noted: "Just because Sarah Palin is a woman, doesn't mean she's good for women." (See also Jezebel)

So we got to thinking (if you'll excuse the Carrie Bradshaw moment)... is it enough to get more women represented at all levels of politics (from grassroots to government) or do they need to be the 'right' women? That is, women who will fight for women's rights and encourage other women to join them? Women who also represent marginalised groups in society and will fight for equality in all areas? And if that's the case, doesn't that mean we all have a responsibility to make sure we step up to the plate ourselves? Would a website like www.sheshouldrun.org for the UK help?

And it's not just me who's been pondering this issue:

• Vivienne Hayes (WRC CEO) argues that women's organisations are a vital part of the struggle to get a diverse range of women into positions of influence
• Nan Sloane (Centre for Women & Democracy) requests a little more understanding for women brave enough to enter the lion's den of politics
• Councillor Anjana Patel, Joella Hazel (Fawcett Society), Lee Chalmers (The Downing Street Project) and Ros Taylor (Comment is Free) have their say...

Reclaiming the Night

We braved the cold on Saturday evening to carry the WRC banner through the streets of central London to raise awareness about violence against women and demand safety for women on the streets at night. It was a really positive and uplifting march with lots of chanting (my favourite is the call and response: “hay, ho, sexual violence has got to go!” as you can really get a good rhythm going!) and colourful handmade banners and placards representing the huge range of women who were involved.

We got the usual lads near Leicester Square being loud and obnoxious but they soon disappeared in embarrassment when they realised we were shouting about rape and domestic abuse! Along Charing Cross Road some people leaned out of their window to bang saucepan lids in support (I remember them from last year!) and of course the usual landmarks along the way – the Soho Bookshop, Harmony and Spearmint Rhino – were the focus for some particular attention.

At Friends Meeting House we had a stall outside the main auditorium and could hear the rousing speeches, it was a full house with loud cheering and even standing ovations! There was lots of interest in the action sheet for the Rape Crisis campaign and people signing up to the why women? campaign as well, and nearly all our materials were taken by interested women which meant I had a lot less to carry home!

Reclaim the Night marches happen all over the country and at different times of year (it would be nice to have one when it was a bit warmer!) so look out for one near you or join the London march in 2009!

See pictures of the night on Flickr

WRC blog is back!

As you can see, we've not been blogging at WRC for a while (due to technical issues), but we're back now! I'm not sure what's happened to the photos and fonts in the interim - I can only apologise!

In the meantime, we've got a new website, some new staff and some new projects.

We've also been looking into how we can best use social media and online tools to connect women's organisations across the country. So far, we have a Facebook group for our why women? campaign and our Communications Officer (that's me) has been dipping into Twitter. We're also interested in the social networks that have been set up for people in the charity sector (http://thecharityplace.ning.com/) and for policy workers in the sector (http://ncvopolicyforum.ning.com/).

Today is also the start of the 16 days of activism for the elimination of violence against women. See a round-up of related events on womensgrid.

New fund to help women's sector blossom

Tuesday night saw the launch of a new UK-wide fund devoted exclusively to championing and investing in charities working with women and girls. The fund is called Rosa, and we've been following its pre-launch progress quite closely (not least because we've been sharing an office with their staff for a few months).

Rosa's mission is to tackle the problems facing women and girls in the UK today by raising funds, investing in change, promoting women's organisations and raising awareness of the challenges facing women and their organisations. We're all really excited - so much hard work has already gone in behind the scenes to get Rosa to this stage (£750,000 had already been donated before the launch) - and it's going to be such a positive force for the women's sector.

They also have a lovely new logo and some very, very pretty business cards (if you're the kind of the person who gets excited by such things, as I am, you should check them out) and even the reasoning behind the name Rosa is inspiring. It was chosen because it is a recognisable name in many languages, and it's also the first name of three outstanding historical female activists: Rosa Luxemburg, the German socialist leader; Rosa May Billingshurst, the British suffragette; and Rosa Parks, the African-American civil rights activist.

They're kicking off their fundraising efforts with a "Celebrate her" campaign, suggesting people celebrate a special woman in their life (mum, friends, daughters etc) by making a gift and sending a virtual rose. Check it out!

www.rosauk.org