The last speaker meeting of their SI Cannock & District’s Diamond Anniversary year was held on St Patrick’s Day and members wore something green in recognition of that. At the meeting they celebrated the work they have done during the year to support Staffordshire Women’s Aid and the Pathway Project by inviting representatives of each organisation to update members and guests on the work they are doing and to present cheques from the monies raised during the year.
Dickie James, CEO of Staffordshire Women’s Aid said that they work closely with Pathway, particularly in providing services for women and children in the Cannock area who need their support and that she was very aware of the synergy between themselves and Soroptimists – they, too, work as a sisterhood to empower women, to educate them and to enable them to achieve in this world. As a charity they will be celebrating their 40th anniversary next year: the Refuge in Stafford which opened in 1976 was one of the first in the country and they have worked in the Cannock area for 12 years. They have an outreach centre based in Cannock and provide varied support to help women and children to access the support they need so that they can remain in their own homes or access refuge accommodation if they need it. Last year their support line took over 1,000 calls from Cannock women and 220 families in the area received help. Part of that help and support was working 1:1 in schools with children who live with abuse. Dickie told everyone that she would like to honour all those women who working in the 1970s to set up Refuges across the country; the UK now has a world leading network of refuges and outreach work. A frightening statistic is that still, 2 women in the UK die every week because of Domestic Violence. Staffordshire Women’s Aid has been and is currently working with local Councils to set up a new Refuge in the area which will include 12 self contained flats as well as indoor and outdoor play areas. If a refuge is the only option for a woman who needs to flee domestic abuse then that is where she will be able to recover and rebuild her life.
President Janis Lomas then introduced Tracy Rowley from the Pathway Project. Cannock Soroptimists have supported Pathway for the last 20 years by providing toiletries, goods to equip homes and, from time to time, funds. Tracy explained that she is new to Pathway, having worked with them since July of last year. She said that she loves being part of a friendly and dedicated team, but also that she has found some circumstances women endure quite shocking, even scary. On behalf of Kathy Coe, Pathway’s Director, she thanked Soroptimists for the support they give to the project, saying that the gifts of comfort bags are always so much appreciated by the women who enter the refuge as they always go to them with nothing other than the clothes they are wearing at the time, so being able to give them a bag of toiletries and other necessities is so important. Tracey also told the meeting that they are the subject of a Documentary to be aired on BBC3 on Wednesday 25th March at 9.00pm.
Although fund raising wasn’t a major focus for the Diamond Anniversary year, SI Cannock raised £1500 which was divided between the two organisations. Both Dickie and Tracy were
thrilled to receive the cheques, which they hadn’t known about beforehand. Staffordshire
Women’s Aid will use the money towards furnishing their new Refuge and Pathway will use theirs on some much needed new equipment for their youth club which runs each week and provides young people whose lives have been difficult with an opportunity to make new friends and to have some time to be children again.
Amanda Milling was amongst the guests at the meeting having joined with Soroptimists to collect items for both Pathway and Staffordshire Women’s Aid after the V Festival last year. She told President Janis, Dickie and Tracy how much she admired the work done by all three organisations, particularly as they are all supporting local women at times of great stress and vulnerability; she told them of her intention to continue to support them all in whatever way she can.
President Janis thanked everyone for supporting the Diamond Anniversary focus of Women suffering Domestic Violence.
For more information please visit: www.sigbi.org/cannock-and-district or www.facebook.com/SICannock
Photo: L to r: Dickie James, CEO Staffordshire Women’s Aid; Dr Janis Lomas, President, SI Cannock & District; Amada Milling; Tracey Rowley, Pathway Project