Tomorrow, Saturday 8th Sept: An evening of music, food and drinks in North London’s Peace Garden - all proceeds go towards the next Million Women Rise march and activities in March 2013!

Elections in England and Wales for the new Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) will be held on 15th November.

This new critical role will fund local victims’ services, hold the Chief Constable to account and publish a Police and Crime Plan.

End Violence Against Women, Rape Crisis England and Wales and the Women’s Resource Centre have published a leaflet to help women’s groups ensure that VAWG is a priority.

Please download the flyer here and send it out far and wide!

As part of St Mungo’s Action Week on Women’s Homelessness and to celebrate the launch of their Rebuilding Shattered Lives campaign, Homeless Link, WRC and St Mungo’s held a Spotlight on Women’s Homelessness event on the 20th June.

The event aimed to promote partnership working between women’s and homelessness organisations and to improve knowledge, skills and highlight best practice when supporting homelessness women, many of whom have complex needs.

The event was a fully booked success and featured a variety of speakers including: Shadow Equalities Minister Kate Green MP, staff from the Department for Communities and Local Government and experts from the homelessness and violence against women sectors. Attendees participated in interactive workshops on topics including: sex trafficking and the Olympics, and joint working between domestic violence and substance misuse organisations.

Over the next 18 months, St Mungo’s will be continuing this great work and exploring ways to support homeless women through its Rebuilding Shattered Lives campaign. As part of the campaign they are inviting organisations, front-line workers and especially women themselves, to talk about how best to prevent women’s homelessness and support their recovery. The objective of their campaign is to increase awareness, promote good practice and ultimately achieve policy change. 

Learn more about the Rebuilding Shattered Lives campaign and how you can get involved here.

Find out more about WRC’s future training and events here.

• How can we ensure that the WL remains open and accessible to all?
• How does this sell-off relate to wider cuts in higher education and attacks on research culture at widening participation universities?
• What is the government doing to protect our museums and archives in a climate of austerity?
• How can we make The Women’s Library an even better resource for feminist activists and the East London community?

For more information email savetwl86@gmail.com

Great to see the New York Times picking up on the story of the impact of the cuts on women’s orgs - Women’s Resource Centre, Eaves, Women’s Aid and Refuge were all quoted in Katrin Bennhold’s excellent piece.

The story, it seems, is going global …. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/18/world/europe/18iht-letter18.html?pagewanted=1&ref=world

MPs are voting on the government’s cuts to legal aid today. Over the last few months, the House of Lords has made some vital changes to the legal aid bill. These changes would protect children, domestic violence victims and disabled people from the worst of the legal aid cuts.

The government has made some concessions but all these commitments could be reversed in the House of Commons.

MPs now have a choice to either back the Lords to stop the worst of the cuts or they can vote to stick with the government’s original plans.

Mumsnet is supporting a campaign calling on MPs to vote against cuts that will penalise domestic violence victims.

Almost every day on the Mumsnet forums there are stories from women trapped in abusive relationships, or parents desperately challenging local authority decisions on provision for their children with special needs.

The legal aid budget helps women and families out of these situations, which is why it needs protecting – because those who use legal aid are some of the most vulnerable in our society. Currently 250,000 cases of divorce and family breakdown receive legal aid. If the bill is passed it is estimated this will be reduced to 40,000.

Only women who can prove a ‘high risk of violence’ would get help under new proposals. A survey by Rights of Women has indicated that almost half of all victims of domestic abuse would not meet these criteria.

Read the full article on the Guardian website

The Sounds from the Park project aims to record the life stories of orators and hecklers from Speakers’ Corner and celebrate the rich tradition of live public debate in London.

The project is applying for funding for workshops for young people and community groups, as part of the project’s outputs. The project is being delivered by a new organisation, On the Record, in partnership with the Bishopsgate Institute. On the Record is a not-for-profit company run by two feminist oral historians, and they would like to develop the funding bid in consultation with grassroots women’s groups.

The funding deadline for this project is in less than a month, so the organisers would like to hear from interested women’s groups sooner rather than later what activities would be useful and interesting for groups in the sector.

On the Record is dedicated to developing people’s history projects that provide learning opportunities for marginalised groups. They have already secured some core and project funding from charitable trusts. The On the Record website is currently under development.

For more information or to arrange a meeting, please contact Laura Mitchison:

e. speakerscornerhistory@gmail.com

t. 07787243656

WRC is offering a FREE training and consultation event about holding national and local government to account on women’s human rights.

Place: Taunton, Somerset County Cricket Club
Time: Monday 16th April, 10.30am
 
The training is intended for all organisations in the women’s sector that wish to learn more on how to use international and UK legislation as a lobbying tool to influence policy. Individual service users of women’s sector organisations and activists are also welcome.
 
You will learn about CEDAW and the Equality Act and how to use these to influence what local public authorities are doing.

The event is organised in partnership with South West Forum, Equality South West, Fair Play South West and South West Foundation.

Book your place via our website!

The number of active grassroots feminist organisations has doubled in the past two years, according to a research carried out by the campaign group UK Feminista.

Kat Banyard, the founder of UK Feminista and author of The Equality Illusion, says “It’s a really exciting time. We are seeing a real resurgence in feminist activism that is moving from the margins to the mainstream”.

“People are willing to put up their hand and say they are a feminist without the fear of being ridiculed. Particularly in the past 12 months, we are seeing people standing up and willing to be counted.”

Campaigners can be found in practically every area of Britain – even the Orkney Feminist Network has 40 followers on Twitter, the Guardian reports. Michael Moore, the regional organiser for UK Feminista in Northern Ireland, said sites such as Twitter and Facebook had enabled people in even the most remote parts of the UK to tap into the debate. “Now it’s as easy as sending an email to mobilise people. There’s no apologies, no minutes – people can engage and thrash out issues in an online space immediately. It’s really sped up the power to communicate.”

You can read the full feature here.

There are still some places left at our FREE training on Wednesday the 28th for women’s voluntary sector organisations on the impact of current government policies on the sector.

The training is intended for anyone who wants to know more about how the devolution of power to local areas and the new legislation connected to this will impact on your organisation and the women you work with and what the challenges and opportunities are for women’s organisations.

Find out about the Public Sector Equality Duty and the obligations arising from the Specific Duties regulations and what it means for public bodies. Learn how you can hold public bodies to account and what it means for organisations in the voluntary and community sector who provide services or perform a public function. Discuss and share your concerns and experiences since the duty was introduced under Equality Act 2010.

Learn more about the Localism Act and all the different measures under this that create challenges and opportunities for women’s organisations. Learn how you can engage with the different programmes of work under the localism agenda and also hold public bodies to account. Produce a local action plan and ideas for what you can do locally. 

Training will be held at St Luke’s Community Centre, Islington, London.

Book your place now via the WRC website!

http://www.wrc.org.uk/training_events/public_sector_equality_duty_training.aspx