Campaigners against domestic violence condemn Rihanna for sending ‘dangerous message’ after she shows compassion for the rapper Chris Brown who abused her. In a recent interview with Oprah Winfrey, Rihanna insisted the rapper “made a mistake” and “needed help” when he assaulted her in 2009. 

Our CEO Vivienne Hayes comments in the Independent:

“It is common for victims to blame themselves for violence perpetrated by their male partners. Whatever the nature of the argument, Brown chose to beat her up. He has to accept responsibility for that choice. And we need to stop society allowing us to normalise such behaviour.”

Women’s Resource Centre on the Chrissy B Show, featured as last week’s ‘Good Cause’!

Our CEO’s interview starts 15 minutes in to the show.

We are currently recruiting for two intern opportunities at WRC:

• Policy Intern 
• Fundraising Intern

If you are interested in either of these roles please send your CV and an expression of interest to the contact at the bottom of the relevant project brief (above).

The deadline for applications is Friday July 27th 2012.

Please also take a look at the information below for opportunities in other women’s organisations.

Volunteering for other women’s organisations

Many women’s organisations rely on volunteers to support their vital work. If you have time, enthusiasm and skills to offer, you can gain useful and enriching experience in return. All types of women volunteer - from those looking to gain work experience, students on internships, women with specific skills and women who want to give something back to the community.

• Our website lists current opportunities to volunteer with our members and related organisations.
• Can’t find a suitable vacancy? Try www.do-it.org.uk or Volunteering England for a wider range of volunteering opportunities.     

Need volunteers?

Contact us to add your vacancy to our listing.

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.

Natalie Ntim, policy officer for the Women’s Resource Centre, on whether women can make the most of opportunities granted to communities under the Localism Act:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/local-government-network/2012/may/28/localism-act-women-communities?CMP=twt_gu

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

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!

Women’s Resource Centre chief executive Vivienne Hayes (right) and policy officer Natalie Ntim (far right) with Prime Minister David Cameron and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg at Downing St’s reception for International Women’s Day 8 March. They are examining WRC’s whywomen? campaign badges (Clegg later put his on!)

Women’s Resource Centre is pleased to announce it has been awarded funding by Trust for London and the City of London’s City Bridge Trust for a three year programme of training on social media and policy influencing.

The programme will comprise seven trainings a year for three years. Of these, three are at a basic, beginners level, examining the basics of influencing policy and campaigning in the morning and including an introduction to social media in the afternoon.

Four will be at a more advanced level, providing more in-depth training on policy and campaigning (such as influencing and engaging locally, online networking and engaging service users in campaigns to influence policy) with a focus in the afternoon on using social media and websites to influence and network effectively. This course will require some basic working knowledge of social media eg Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

In addition, we will:

• Provide 10 women’s organisations a year with one to one support in developing their digital and social media - from websites to blogs and media strategies.
• Match five women’s organisations per year with volunteers who can help with developing websites.

The programme is open to women’s organisations based in London and will begin in May 2012.

This year’s training dates are:

• Thursday 3rd May (beginners)
  
• Thursday 14th June (beginners)
  
• Wednesday 4 July (beginners)
  
• Tuesday 18th September (advanced)
  
• Wednesday 17th October (advanced)
  
• Wednesday 14th November (advanced)
  
• Wednesday 5th December (advanced)
  

If you would like to attend one of the trainings, please email admin@wrc.org.uk with ‘training’ in the subject field or call 0207 324 3030 and ask to speak to Sarah Brown. You can also download booking forms:

Beginners: Beginners form (63.00KB) and

Advanced: Advanced form (62.50KB)

and send to the admin email address: admin@wrc.org.uk

If you are interested in one to one support please contact Sarah Brown on 0207 324 3040 or email sarahbrown@wrc.org.uk with ‘one to one support’ in the subject header of the email.

Please note that one to one support is on a first come first served basis.