Thank you to Broadstone Royal British Legion for use of their lovely club room for our ‘Come and Meet Us’ event on Saturday! We met some really interesting ladies from the local area – many of whom were already active and committed to making a difference and standing up for women and girls.
We welcome any woman who lives or works in Poole, Wimborne, Purbeck and surrounding areas. Join us for a coffee, cake & chat : 11pm – 1pm Saturday 6th September British Legion Tudor Road Broadstone BH18 8AW see you there!
Amazing regional meet up at Salisbury on Saturday 21st. Not actually at Stonehenge but the next best thing! The guest speaker was Tracy Daszkiewicz who led the public health response to the Salisbury Poisonings. Tracy was and is an inspiration!. Visit to the Elizabeth Frink exhibition at Salisbury Musem afterwards a real treat!
We were delighted to welcome Eliza Atyeo last week to talk to us about our local council’s adult social care prevention strategy. Eliza shared with us the data which led to the initiative and shared with us how early intervention can improve outcomes. BCP are very aware of how volunteer and community groups can be such effective contributors to good outcomes and supported us in exploring new pathways. The King’s Head at Wimborne were excellent hosts.
Four club members attended the SIGBI conference in Edinburgh where Fresh Thoughts was shortlisted for the Best Practice Award – ENABLE We were delighted to win the Delegates’ nomination for Best Project and to learn that many clubs want to take Fresh Thoughts on as a local project.
At our last club meeting in September we welcomed another remarkable woman working in a male dominated role in the Merchant Navy. Fran Collins, CEO of @redfunnelferry is a master mariner, a highly respected position due to the exceptional training in the UK. She told members that 95% of UK’s goods and services are transported by the Merchant Navy. When Fran started her training there were 3 women and 40 men. Interestingly of these the 3 women and only 9 men qualified. Fran spoke about the challenges of long stretches at sea, often being the only woman on board and discrimination. Fran has introduced more flexible working to attract more women but feels there is still more to be done.
FRESH THOUGHTS Our most recent project has been to produce an information booklet for front-line workers in Dorset who support women who are experiencing Domestic Abuse. The writing of the booklet followed on from research within our local safe house and our reflections following our observation of the Domestic Abuse Courts. We are excited that the booklet is already proving very useful in different locations in Dorset and are looking forward to its wider use, thanks to the support of the Police and Crimes Commissioner for Dorset. Here’s a link to our video of the launch and instructions as to how to make the booklet local for your area. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ng3JQG9jQJzBlqnGKhoFV_aO4EMgVHFB/view
We had a fascinating talk at our Club meeting from local celebrated photographer Jayne Bond. Jayne treated us to an array of beautiful wildlife photos and spoke to us about how she achieves mindfulness in nature.
A great turnout to see and hear the Santa Train around Creekmoor, with many thanks to Poole Rotary – and Santa!
Along with other local organisations raising awareness of gender abuse , we spent some time at Poole Central Library and chatted with interested members of the public. STARS and Citizens Advice were most interested in our current projects and future thoughts. Very worthwhile!
