About Poole, Purbeck and District Soroptimists | SI Poole, Purbeck and District

Who are Poole, Purbeck and District Soroptimists?

Soroptimist International Poole, Purbeck and District is a friendly, active club for women who live in Poole, Wimborne, Purbeck and surrounding areas. We are a local branch of the world-wide women’s voluntary organisation: Soroptimist International.

We are women who want to – and do – make a difference.

Soroptimists are women who help other women improve their lives. We identify and deliver projects that result in better education, health, emotional and financial development. Soroptimist International, which is over 100 years old, has recently been called an ‘unstoppable force for good’ with Education, Enabling and Empowerment of Women at its heart. Core to its success is co-operation with other charities and NGOs.

What do Poole, Purbeck & District Soroptimists do?

WE act.

Just over 14 years ago we started our own anti -human trafficking campaign – Purple Teardrop, which now has separate charitable status. Our ongoing actions include providing our own message bookmarks to local schools to help young people learn about safe relationships, sponsoring the education of a vulnerable female student in Kenya, and looking to how we can contribute to the local support needed by victims fleeing domestic abuse. As such, we’ve recently produced a local booklet for professionals who support victims fleeing DA (see projects page) . We take part in national campaigns and closely follow the passage of legislation in Parliament as it affects women and girls.

Our fund-raising donations complement the projects we are focusing on. Apart from sending donations, we are currently supporting Tools for Self Reliance, our local food banks, and are sending knitted clothes for small children directly to areas of need in the developing world through connections with our sister Soroptimists. We regularly make donations, raise funds or carry out projects to help our local Refuge (for victims of domestic violence) and BCHA.https://www.bcha.org.uk/

Where and when do we get together?

We meet in the evening on the second Monday of most months, at the lovely new Christ Church building in Creekmoor.

We vary the format of the meetings – at some, we have a speaker to bring us up to speed on issues we’re working on or planning, whilst on other evenings we have a round table discussion. We’re always delighted to be joined by guests – you’ll find a warm welcome, with lively and informed debate. Guests often say they are pleasantly surprised and interested by our projects, and amazed at how much we achieve. Another special focus for the year from April 2023 to 2024 was meeting women who through their interest in the arts are making a difference to their community, and we had a number of very interesting speakers!

In addition to the campaign work, we organise a number of social get-togethers throughout the year and have a very popular book club – all activities are designed to bring us together within our club and with the other voluntary organisations in and around Poole.

Interested in finding out more about us and about Soroptimist International?

New ideas as to how we can continue to make a difference are welcomed -with open arms! This website has lots of information about our current projects, fund-raisers and events and please follow us on Facebook. We hope you’re inspired to find out more, come along to an event or to join – just drop an email to SIPoole@btinternet.com

and we’ll get back to you!

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