It was another busy Club meeting on 12 June when we welcomed new Member Helen Atkinson, handed over £1800 to the SAHWR Refuge and shared some great ideas for our 2023 “Orange the World” campaign to end violence against women, 25 Nov to 10 Dec.
New member induction: Helen Atkinson
It is always a special evening when we officially welcome a new member to our Club. On Monday 12 June all Club Members were proud to welcome Helen Atkinson. Denise Powell, facilitator of the Peace Team was leading the meeting and is photographed here presenting Helen to the Club its newest Member.
Helen introduced herself to the club. She lives in Harpenden and is originally from Bradford. Her interests have been around gender inequality and issues effecting women. She saw Jane’s letter in Good Housekeeping and wanted to know more about Soroptimists. Helen is a Management Consultant and Executive Coach and hopes to get more involved with Soroptimists when she retires. She is a Member of the Club’s Peace Team and has Denise Powell as her mentor.
St Albans and Hertsmere Women’s Refuge
Denise introduced Liz Perry, from SAHWR. Liz shared that the club has supported the refuge for a long time and the support the club offers is so valuable. The women’s refuge provides safe accommodation and also runs community services. They have 28 bed spaces with a range of accommodation. The dispersed units provide support to men, so they provide support to all victims of domestic abuse.
Seven years ago, HCC changed the funding structure and 2 years ago changed the commissioning of the service so that HCC now only commissions 15 of the 28 beds so the refuge must find additional funding streams to cover the additional bed spaces and services.
Despite the changes in funding the core services have remained the same. The environment is safe, clean, and well-furnished rooms with buddy bags for the children and care packages and food parcels for the adults.
Since the change in law children are now recognised as victims in their own right. This has enabled the refuge to employ three child support workers who work with the children. Liz shared one of the children’s stories. In six months, the child had gone from being nonverbal, scared, and unable to make any kind of eye contact to engaging with staff, expressing his needs and being able to communicate. His early presentation led professionals to believe he may have been on the autistic spectrum but now it’s thought that these behaviours may have been the impact of the trauma experienced.
Liz shared that technology abuse is a growing issue and people are being electronically tracked and having their online accounts breached.
The refuge is currently working with about 190 people in the community and all the beds are in use.
Liz explained how the refuge can use the funds raised by the club. They have been using some of the money to equip the new child support workers with toys and facilities to use during the therapy session. It can also be used to partially fund a seaside trip and other activities where there is a need but not normally funded. They value the money we raise for them because it comes “with no strings attached” unlike grants which are usually for specific resources.
As always there were lots of questions from Soroptimists and Liz was candid with her answers.
Helen asked if toiletries and cosmetics are needed. Liz said these are also very welcome along with the tea and coffee our Members already donate. Members can bring these items to face-to-face groups, and then they are passed to the refuge.
Barbara asked about the future for the refuge. Liz explained that they are just starting the second year of a 2-year contract and they will have to go through the whole tendering process again very soon. This is an ongoing issue as it takes a lot of her time which she would rather be using to help the women and children at the refuge.
Denise thanked Liz on behalf of the club and Sarah presented Liz with a donation of a whopping £1800 from our fundraising efforts over the last year including the “Orange Party” last November as part of our “Orange the World” campaign to end violence against women, our annual festive singing with collection at St Albans station at Christmas and our successful Quiz evening in March this year! Liz was delighted and said that SAHWR really values our continued support.
Orange the World 2023 – Project Planning
Denise explained the background behind Oranging and why the Soroptimists get involved. The “Orange the World” campaign is a United Nations initiative with 16 days of activism to end gender based violence 25 Nov to 10 Dec. As a bright and optimistic colour, orange represents a future free from violence against women and girls.
You can read more about it here: https://sigbi.org/st-albans-and-district/orange-the-world/
There is also “Orange Day” on the 25th of the Month. The Soroptimist UK Programme Programme Action Committee has joined the UNiTE campaign, a day to raise awareness and take action to end violence against women and girls https://sigbi.org/ukpac/2023/04/30/orange-cafes/ and https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/take-action/unite
Awareness raising can be problematic as there are a lot of people to raise awareness of and it’s a big subject. The launch event at the museum will be repeated but it’s important to look at other actions the club can make.
We can join other Soroptimist Clubs in holding “orange cafes” on the 25th of each month.
Past successes have included lighting up buildings, orange office blocks, orange newsletter, orange party.
Suggestion to create small posters/flyers.
Suggestion to create a campaign that challenges the stereotypes of what a victim of gender-based violence looks like. Show people that this is a problem that effects all groups of women.
Lawyers – suggestion to target legal firms. Could use similar strategy with the pancake race.
Suggestion to devoting some resources to partnership work.
Evening walk – walk in St Albans collectively as a large group of women and dress in orange. Draw attention to the fact that many women feel unsafe walking outside after dark.
Encourage calling out gender-based abuse.
Market stall – encouraging women to share experiences. Reporting harassment and assaults has changed a lot with the developments in technology – better quality CCTV.
One point centre for reporting – ‘No More’ campaign.
Getting people to think about gender-based violence
Feedback is helpful even if it appears negative.
Think about approaching the Galleria in Hatfield and setting up a stall.
A member shared her experience of reporting a sexual assault on a bus. So many people expected nothing would come of reporting it to the police, but it was successful, and the person was charged and found guilty based on CCTV evidence and statement.
Orange the bookstall.
Orange the quiz.
The planning/discussions were useful and it was hoped they will result in Club Members continuing to think and have more ideas to put forward to the Club’s Peace Team.
Feedback from Regional Meeting/Conference 3rd June in Redbourn
Sarah shared the positive experience of attending the Region meeting of “Northern Clubs” in the Region (the 5 Clubs are St Albans, Hertford, Milton Keynes, Aylesbury and Bedford). This was a trial of meeting with smaller cluster of Clubs in the Region (Western and London Clubs met separately). With just 19 attendees the meeting was interactive, friendly and the atmosphere felt more informal. It was shorter than the regular Region face-to-face Conferences and more local so much less of a time commitment. Please click here to read more about the event https://sigbi.org/london-chilterns/northjun23
Feedback from Repair Fair 10th June https://sigbi.org/st-albans/repair
The repair fair was successful. Anna explained the setup of these kinds of events and how the repairs help to reduce carbon footprint.
Dates for diary please click here for the Club Programme https://sigbi.org/st-albans/club-programme