Club member Emma Hodges, CEO of St Giles Hospice, was the speaker at the September meeting of Cannock Soroptimists. The aim of Emma’s presentation was two-fold – to explain the reasons behind the recent re-brand and to show something of the diversity of care offered by St Giles whilst the main focus of care for patient and family remains at its core: what was important 34 years ago is important still today. The new logo shows a return to the original colour of Orange used by St Giles for many years; the strap line: ‘It’s your life and that’s what matters’ demonstrates that the Hospice is about life:  Hospice care is holistic, caring for emotional, practical, spiritual and physical needs and worries for the whole family. There have been so many changes and advances in the last 34 years: 80% of Hospice care is now

Soroptimists are marking World Food Day – Monday 16th October – by collecting items of food to donate to the Cannock Food Bank, collecting at their September and October meetings.  The local food bank has recently put out an urgent plea for more food as their stocks are running very low. Soroptimists are pleased to be able to support this project – many of us are lucky enough to never have to worry about where the next meal comes from, though we know this is not the case for everyone.  Enabling a mother to feed her children, [and herself], means that they are being helped towards a safer and healthier life. The focus of the action and work undertaken by Soroptimists is to improve the lives of women and girls: making sure they are not hungry is part of that work. All food donated is

Val Jones, President of Soroptimist International of Cannock & District, was delighted Dr Dawn Pope as a member of the club; Dawn is the fourth new member to be inducted in this Soroptimist year. Dr Dawn Pope is an Environmental Auditor. She has lived locally for 20 years, and is married with a grown-up son. She was previously a member of SI Stafford and thoroughly enjoyed her membership but found juggling that with her career and family difficult.  She now feels she has the time to make a full commitment to the club and to the work of the organisation. She was introduced by Soroptimist Dr Janis Lomas, who will also be her mentor.  Dawn thanked club members for their very friendly welcome to her over the past few weeks.  She said “I have been looking again at the work of Soroptimists: educating, empowering and

Val Jones, President of Soroptimist International of Cannock & District, was delighted Dr Dawn Pope as a member of the club; Dawn is the fourth new member to be inducted in this Soroptimist year.   Dr Dawn Pope is an Environmental Auditor. She has lived locally for 20 years, and is married with a grown-up son. She was previously a member of SI Stafford and thoroughly enjoyed her membership but found juggling that with her career and family difficult.  She now feels she has the time to make a full commitment to the club and to the work of the organisation. She was introduced by Soroptimist Dr Janis Lomas, who will also be her mentor.  Dawn thanked club members for their very friendly welcome to her over the past few weeks.  She said “I have been looking again at the work of Soroptimists: educating, empowering

Soroptimist International of Cannock & District have been involved for the past few years with the collection of tents, chairs and other goods left behind at Weston Park following the annual V Festival. The collection is organised by the local District of Rotary International and takes place on the two days following the V Festival.  This year, as in previous years, so much was left behind by the those who attended the Festival which, if it can be collected, can be used by people at home and overseas.  No matter how many volunteers go along they are never able to collect all of the items left behind. This year 5 Soroptimists from SI Cannock & District went along to help with the grand ‘clear-up’ at Weston Park following another very successful, but rather muddy, V Festival.  Wearing wellies and other appropriate clothing, members set to

Val Jones, President of SI Cannock & District welcomed Amanda Milling MP as the club’s speaker in August.The President’s theme for the year is ‘Women in Power’ and the Cannock Chase MP spoke to the group about women in Politics. Amanda spoke about her life as a female MP – she became the 433rd female MP ever elected and the first female MP for the current Cannock Chase constituency. Over the last 25 years the percentage of female MPs has risen from below 10% to 32%, however if all of the female MPs ever elected were in Parliament together, there would still not be enough to fill the 650 Commons’ seats. Amanda Milling told Soroptimists and their guests that it was a pleasure to speak to them and discuss women in politics.  She told them that she has always been fascinated by politics but had

Soroptimist International of Cannock & District have been involved for the past few years with the collection of tents, chairs and other goods left behind at Weston Park following the annual V Festival. The collection is organised by the local District of Rotary International and takes place on the two days following the V Festival.  This year, as in previous years, so much was left behind by the those who attended the Festival which, if it can be collected, can be used by people at home and overseas.  No matter how many volunteers go along they are never able to collect all of the items left behind. This year 5 Soroptimists from SI Cannock & District went along to help with the grand ‘clear-up’ at Weston Park following another very successful, but rather muddy, V Festival.  Wearing wellies and other appropriate clothing, members set to

Members of SI Cannock & District and their partners spent a wonderful afternoon at the home of club member Carole Holdcroft enjoying their annual Summer Celebration lunch. Although it wasn’t warm enough to sit outside for lunch those who wished to were able to have a stroll in the garden afterwards. President Val Jones thanked Carole for her generous hospitality in opening up her home and also thanked those members who had provided desserts and cakes. £224.00 was raised for club funds: this is used to purchase items needed for Soroptimists to continue their work to raise awareness of some of the many issues they are involved with, issues such as child sexual exploitation, trafficking and domestic abuse being amongst them. In addition, a raffle was held which raised £100.00 for the Soroptimist Meru Garden Project.  This is a Federation project and is in its

Members of SI Cannock enjoyed an afternoon at Norton Canes Community Centre Summer Fair on Sunday 30th July, collecting household items for Pathway (victims of domestic violence).  Members were extremely grateful to Hednesford Lions who donated a large amount of items and also people who attended the fayre.  Volunteers at Pathway will make up packs of the household items that have been donated for when the women move to alternative accommodation. During the afternoon members sold gift packs of toiletries and lavender bags, money raised will go to Meru Women’s Garden Project. The projects aim is to educate, enable and empower women in Meru County, Kenya by providing agricultural training and equipment to enable women to feed their families Members were able to talk to other stall holders and fayre-goers about why they love being part of SI Cannock and the work they do for

Sue Arnold, Deputy Police & Crime Commissioner for Staffordshire was the speaker at a recent meeting of Cannock Soroptimists. President Val Jones introduced her saying that she was a ‘Woman of Power’ who would talk about ‘Women as Victims’, her theme for the year. Sue has been Deputy Police & Crime Commissioner (DPCC) since 2012; part of her portfolio is ‘Victims’ considering in particular how they are treated and the support mechanisms available to them. When she first looked into this there were 60,000 victims of crime in the County but support was being offered to only 23,000 – the type of crime dictated whether or not support was offered and Sue could see this was unfair. Her work with several agencies meant that the Victim Gateway was launched ensuring support is available to every victim of crime in Staffordshire.  Additional services are available for victims of