'Key points' still need to be addressed - WRC responds to govt consultation on commissioning of local
services to address violence against women, girls
The
Women's Resource Centre has responded to the UK government's consultation on mainstreaming the commissioning of local services to address violence against women and girls, which you can read here:
FINAL WRC Response to Commissioning VAW March 2010 (4).doc (515.00KB) .
While the guidance is very good, there are still some key points to address to ensure that the independent, specialist VAWG sector is supported by local commissioners.
The consultation is open until 15 March, so there is still time for organisations to respond. The original consultation is
here.
WRC partners with NSPCC, Children England to support Safe Network
The Women's Resource Centre has partnered with the NSPCC and Children England to provide support and advice to its Safe Network programme, which works to assist the third sector in having effective child protection and safety measures in place.
The WRC will provide advice on promoting the greater involvement of the women's voluntary sector in safeguarding activities at local and national levels across the WRC's network of organisations and those who work with women and girls.
The Safe Network was launched on 5 June last year to offer information, training, materials and tailored advice that volunteers, parents and organisations need to provide safe environments for children and young people.
Click
here to learn more about Safe Network.
Your help needed! WRC begins survey on power and importance of women's sector
The Women's Resource Centre has launched a quick and simple survey to demonstrate the power and inmportance of the women's sector - and we need your help!
We are planning to produce a report, based on the information we collect, which we shall use to demonstrate to the government the continuing need for women's organisations, especially in light of the recession.
But we cannot do this alone, so please tell us about your work, so that we can present the best argument. It takes 15 minutes and you can complete the survey by clicking
here Best of all, by completing the survey you enter our prize draw and can win up to £100 for your organisation of one of your choice! So after you've finished the survey, please pass it to your colleagues and other organisations.
WRC launches greeting card for International Women's Day
10 February 2010
The Women's Resource Centre has created a beautiful greeting card to buy in honour of International Women's Day on March 8th.
Profits from the sale of the card (pictured above) contribute to supporting women's organisations many of whom provide life-saving services to some of the most marginalised women in our communities. And if you buy 10 you get one free!
Read more and buyWomen's organisations funded to work on FGM
12 December 2009
Last week, three funders announced the names of the projects they will be funding under their special FGM initiative. The initiative will fund community based, preventive work to safeguard children from the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
Read more...Beautiful Star album supports women's charities
23 November 2009
Wears the Trousers magazine (which highlights women in the music industry) has put together a tribute album to the influential folk artist, Odetta Holmes. All the profits from the album will be split between the
Fawcett Society and the Women's Resource Centre. It is now available for pre-order in advance of its release on 30 November 2009.
Read more...Women's organisations shocked by surprise withdrawal of funding
17 November 2009
Charities across the country have been angered by the Government's surprise decision to cancel its Campaigning Research programme, after the grants had already been awarded. We spoke to three women's organisations about the impact it has had on their work.
Read our statement...New government 'no recourse' scheme does not go far enough
12 November 2009
Today, the UK government announced a pilot scheme for women experiencing domestic violence but who cannot access safe housing and support due to their insecure immigration status.
The scheme will provide funding for a woman with ‘no recourse to public funds’ in a refuge for up to 40 days pending an application to remain in the UK under the Domestic Violence Rule.
Read more...New online network for the women's sector
22 October 2009
WRC has just launched the Women's Cafe, an online network for the women's voluntary and community sector.
Read more...WRC membership now free for small groups
22 October 2009
As of 1 November 2009, membership of the Women's Resource Centre will be free for organisations with annual incomes under £100,000. Earlier this year our members identified funding as the biggest challenge they face and of those who did not renew their membership with WRC, 30% stated that it was due to lack of funds. So we thought we'd do our bit to help out.
Read more...
Take action on no recourse
2 October 2009
On Wednesday 4 November, WRC is supporting a mass lobby of parliament that will bring hundreds of activists together to urge the UK government to protect all women from violence and abuse in the UK.
Read more...New UN Agency for Women
15 September 2009
Yesterday, the UN General Assembly supported a resolution on the creation of a powerful new UN “agency for women”.
Despite many important developments for women, Governments have failed to implement the commitments to women’s rights they have made in the CEDAW Convention, Beijing Platform for Action, the Millennium Development Goals and other human rights agreements.
A new agency will improve the UN’s coordination and efforts to fund and promote gender equality, and has the potential to end the ‘suffocating patriarchy’ within the UN.
Read more here New funding for Rape Crisis Centres
5 August 2009
The government today announced £3million funding to support victims of rape and sexual violence.
The money will fund Rape Crisis Centres and other organisations supporting victims of rape and sexual violence, as well as funding 15 existing and 8 new Sexual Assault Referral Centres (SARCs) and 43 Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVAs) to offer practical support for victims of sexual violence.
Read more...How can we support women and girls affected by gang violence and serious youth offending?
23 July 2009
WRC, in partnership with Race On the Agenda (ROTA) is looking at the services available to support women and girls affected by gang violence and serious youth offending. The needs of such women and girls have largely been ignored until now.
Women's body image projects are happy recipients of Rosa's first grants
10 June 2009
Rosa, the UK fund for women and girls, announced yesterday that their first round of grants will go to the
Powerhouse,
Mimbre and
Feminist Webs for their work with women and girls on body image.
New third sector minister is patron of Basildon Women's Aid
8 June 2009
Angela Smith, MP for Basildon, has been confirmed as the new Minister for the Third Sector. She replaces Kevin Brennan, who has moved on to the new Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Angela Smith is a patron of
Basildon Women's Aid, and we hope her appointment will be good news for the women's sector. See Angela Smith's
website.
Women's health consortium seeks manager
26 May 2009
WRC has been supporting a new partnership of women's organisations tackling women’s health and social inequalities.
The Women's Health & Equality Consortium is now looking to employ a manager.
Read more...Measuring the value of the women's sector
5 May 2009
WRC is looking for 5 women's organisations to take part in a new project measuring the impact of the work of the women's sector. If you want to demonstrate the economic, social and environmental impacts of your work to funders, supporters and policymakers,
read on...Equality Bill published
28 April 2009
Yesterday the government published the Equality Bill. You can download the bill in various formats from the Government Equalities Office
website. The Bill aims to narrow the gap between rich and poor; outlaw age discrimination; significantly strengthen Britain’s anti-discrimination legislation; and will require businesses to report on gender pay.
WRC will be producing a briefing for women's organisations. If there's anything else you'd find useful,
get in touch.
Launch of 3rd 'why women?' report
23 March 2009
WRC have launched their latest report in the
why women? campaign. The report,
Not just bread, but roses, too maps women’s organisations across all of the English regions. We’ve looked at the areas organisations work in, the equalities strands they focus on and have tracked income and expenditure data for 2004 to 2007. One of the key findings is that 1 in 5 women's organisations became inactive during 2004-7.
You can
download the report to read about the research and its key findings in full.
Home Office launches nationwide violence against women consultation
12 March 2009
The Home Office is encouraging a national debate on how to prevent violence against women, how to protect women and children experiencing violence and how to convince women to report it.
EHRC threatens legal action over lack of services for female victims of violence
30 January 2009
The
Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) today announced it will target over 100 local authorities with the threat of legal action over their failure to provide specialised services for women who have experienced violence.
The threat of legal action comes as a new report,
Map of Gaps II, published today by the EHRC and the End Violence Against Women coalition (EVAW), reveals a major funding gap for services that help women escape violence and abuse.
Read more on the EVAW website or go to
www.mapofgaps.org to see how your area is affected.
WRC Policy Forum member wins award
29 January 2009
Yeukai Taruvinga has just won the
Campaigner of the Year award. Yeukai is the Chair of
Women Asylum Seekers Together (WAST) London and sits on WRC’s Policy Forum.
Yeukai, a refused asylum seeker who has been previously detained, has been volunteering and campaigning tirelessly around the issues of destitution and permission to work. Yeukai wrote about her
experiences seeking asylum in Britain from Zimbabwe in The Guardian on 20 December 2008. Heartfelt congratulations to Yeukai!
Oral histories of the Black Women's Movement
5 January 2009
Black Cultural Archives is collecting oral histories of women involved in and inspired by the Black Women's Movement in Britain. They are
recruiting volunteers to carry out interviews and transcribe them. For further information please contact Mia Morris, Oral History Project Co-ordinator, on 020 7582 8516
mia@bcaheritage.org.uk or visit the project blog
http://heartoftherace.blogspot.com.
Rosa announces theme for first grants
22 December 2008
Rosa, the new UK women's fund, announced today that their first set of grants will focus on projects supporting women and girls to develop a positive body image. £25,000 will be available and more details will be available in February.
Read Rosa's latest update.
New training to make women's organisations more financially resilient
1 December 2008
WRC will be running a series of free training sessions for women's organisations in London. The sessions will provide organisations with the skills and knowledge to diversify their income streams, build effective relationships with funders and develop partnerships. The first session -
Introduction to developing a sustainable funding mix - is on 10 December. For more details see the full
training calendar.
New guide: how to influence local agendas
26 November 2008
Can't tell your LSP from your LAA? WRC has produced a
new guide to help women's organisations influence local agendas. Decision making powers are increasingly being devolved to local areas. Women's organisations must engage with the local agenda to ensure their issues and services (and funding for them) are taken into account.
Winners of 2008 Emma Humphries Memorial Prize announced
31 October 2008
Fabulous women campaigners received awards at the annual Emma Humphries Memorial Prize ceremony. Sabrina Qureshi, treasurer of Women and Girls Network and one of the driving forces behind this year's Million Women Rise march, won the individual award. Women Asylum Seekers Together (Manchester) won the group award, and Southall Black Sisters received a special award.
New support for London's violence against women sector
8 October 2008
The Women’s Resource Centre (WRC) is pleased to announce the success of our joint bid with
Women & Girls Network for
London Councils funding. Together we have been awarded £150,000 per year for four years to deliver support to London-based organisations working in the field of violence against women. Women & Girls Network will be delivering most of the services, which will include accredited training and events for frontline workers in violence against women services. WRC will provide some training and one-to-one support on organisational development issues (e.g. monitoring and evaluation).
The project will launch in early 2009. For more information contact Supriya on 020 7324 3038 or
supriya@wrc.org.uk.