{"id":5646,"date":"2023-03-11T17:04:54","date_gmt":"2023-03-11T16:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/london-chilterns\/?p=5646"},"modified":"2023-05-05T16:01:31","modified_gmt":"2023-05-05T15:01:31","slug":"iwd23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/london-chilterns\/2023\/03\/11\/iwd23\/","title":{"rendered":"Embrace Equity and DigitALL for Soroptimist International Women\u2019s Day Event"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IWD2023<\/a>What an inspiring and motivating day! On Sat 11 March it was the Soroptimist International London Chilterns Region Conference and Celebration of International Women\u2019s Day. It was our first time in London since the end of 2019 and it felt great to all be together again. <\/strong>There were almost 50 of us there. This included Members of the London Collective from our two London Clubs (Greater London, and Central and South West London) plus Members from SI East London, Croydon, Bromley and Enfield (which are in South East and London Anglia Regions). The themes running through the day were the London Chilterns Region theme for the year\u00a0 “The Future is Ours to Challenge”<\/strong>, and the two International Women’s Day<\/strong> themes #EmbraceEquity and #DIGITALL. <\/strong>The fabulous photo below was taken at the end of the meeting with everyone doing the #EmbraceEquity pose.<\/p>\n

\"SILC<\/a><\/p>\n

We began the day with Shilla Patel, Training and Events Coordinator for the AVA Project<\/strong> (<\/b>A<\/strong>gainst V<\/strong>iolence and A<\/strong>buse) which is a leading UK charity committed to ending gender-based violence and abuse. <\/b>The AVA Project <\/span>strives to improve services for survivors through <\/span>training<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>resources and <\/span>consultancy,<\/span> to end Violence Against Women and Girls<\/span> through <\/span>policy<\/span>, research and prevention work. Shilla linked her presentation with the International Women’s Day theme \"SILC<\/a>#EmbraceEquity<\/strong>. Click here to read Shilla’s presentation SILC IWD AVA Shilla Patel 2023<\/a><\/span>. Some of the training offered to practitioners by AVA is in: Trauma Informed Practice, the Housing and the Domestic Abuse Act, Working with Experts by Experience, Children and Young People, Adult Child to Parent Abuse. Some of the projects they are working on are: CODA (children overcoming Domestic Abuse), Staying Mum (supporting mothers), Women’s Homelessness Project (launched last week), Healthy London Healthy Relationships, Ask Ava. There is some \"\"<\/a>work underway linking DA with the menopause – and the support that menopausal women need. AVA works with the groups in the London VAWG Consortium www.wrc.org.uk\/london-vawg-consortium-members<\/a>. There are lots of resources on the AVA project website\u00a0 avaproject.org.uk<\/a><\/strong>. The charity is national and provides free services to practitioners in London with charges applying outside London. Shilla rounded up #EmbraceEquity with this cartoon that shows clearly how to work effectively to support women.<\/p>\n

Shilla is an inspiring woman. You can read more about her here: “Shilla lives in North London and identifies as a proud female, Asian, Indian, African and Kenyan Londoner. She currently works for a charity i.e. Against Violence and Abuse (AVA) as their training and events coordinator since November 2022. Previous to this Shilla worked for the London Fire Brigade (LFB) for 18 1\/2 years as an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) training designer and trainer, and then Inclusion Manager. Shilla is extremely passionate about promoting and embedding EDI so that it is a golden thread throughout the organisation. One of her primary roles was to oversee and facilitate several staff networks, which included being chair of the Asian Fire Service Association for 6 1\/2 years and then founding the Brigade’s first mental health staff network called United MINDs and helping to establish their domestic abuse network, Phoenix. Shilla was given the Special Recognition Award for Excellence in the Field of Mental Health at The Firefighters Charity\u2019s Spirit of Fire Awards in November 2020, which was virtually presented by HRH Duke of Cambridge. Shilla is currently a volunteer for the National Suicide Prevention Alliance, working with the Samaritans and other charities and organisations. Shilla is now embarking on a new journey with AVA and is undertaking a Masters in Counselling and Psychotherapy at the University of East London. Her ambition is to become a qualified counsellor in the Violence Against Women and Girls sector.”<\/p>\n

\"SILC<\/a>We were delighted that Ruth Healey, President-Elect of Soroptimist International Great Britain and Ireland (SIGBI<\/a>) was keen to be our second speaker. <\/strong>\u00a0Ruth gave us insight to where we are currently as an organisation as well as looking to the future with her vision and thoughts for her Presidency 2023-25. Ruth’s presentation can be viewed here SILC – SIGBI Pres-Elect 11.3.23<\/a>. The Region’s theme is “The Future is Ours to Challenge”<\/strong> and Ruth’s presentation resonated well with the theme motivating all Clubs to go and do things differently.Ruth showed us the membership forecast, declining. Like many voluntary organisations in the current environment it is becoming increasingly difficult to recruit new members – so we must make this a priority. If every Club in the country could add one net new member (i.e. taking account of leavers as well as joiners), we could reverse the downward trend. This is an achievable target. Ruth gave us her thoughts on the future: we know that o<\/span>ur message is current and valid, we need to focus and do less that has more impact, we need to be more outward facing, we need to be flexible and agile, we need to find out what tomorrow\u2019s members want – because they are the future, and we need to be brave.<\/p>\n

Ruth told us that her heroine is a lady who has:<\/div>\n
\n