You're invited to the Women's Voices Stronger Together Event on Thursday 28 February 2019, 9.30am - 12.30pm.
Inspire Women Oldham Centre Oldham Greater Manchester
It's Time For a Different Conversation!
Join us for a truly collaborative event exploring what matters to women & young women & how working together we can ensure women and girls voices are heard in Oldham
Why we are holding this event:
Work being progressed at a National level through the Women's Mental Health Task Force; the Female Offender Strategy; the Alliance for Women and Girls (AGENDA) Partnership; Womencentred Strategy all highlight the urgent need to better respond to women's experiences and the realities of their lives, calling for gendered responses, and what matters to women being central to service design. Many National Organisations have already signed up to support this shift including NHS England, Public Health England and the CQC. Despite this work at a National Level there is currently no platform/focus/resources to progress this work at a local level in Oldham. The Collective Partnership/Inspire Women are working with national partners to try to change this.
In November 2018 Inspire Women held a "Speak Out Event" giving an opportunity to local women to speak out about what matters to them; an overwhelming 91 women attended that event the key message being "We want to be heard; we want to be part of developing services that matter to us". Outcomes from the event were further showcased through a short film/interview with the RSA in London at their event titled "Britain's New Giants The Stories of Extraordinary Lives", identified as both courageous and innovative.
In 2018 a small group of local Women's Organisations/Groups met to discuss the effects of lack of resources, and the increasing demands on their services that all rely heavily on local women gifting their time. Local groups are finding it increasingly difficult to attract local/GM funding; almost all had lost funding in the last 12 months, had been unsuccessful securing local funding; and all had seen a significant increase in the number of women/young women accessing their services; particularly women/young with mental health problems.
Who this event is for:
- Women/young women who live in Oldham
- Women's Organisations based in Oldham
- Women's Projects based in Oldham
- Organisations who support women/young women in Oldham e.g. schools/colleges/Youth Centres
- Decision makers/influencers/Funders of women's services in Oldham/Greater Manchester
** Please note that if you are male and support women/make decisions that impact women's lives you are very welcome to attend ******
What to expect at this event:
Our approach to this event is both collaborative and inclusive; the "who" and not "what" you are is what we are seeking. We will be using A World Café or Knowledge Café structure to enable knowledge and conversational sharing- No Power Points or lengthy speeches! You can arrive at the Centre from 09.30am for light refreshments; we are asking everyone who attends to bring an item for our breakfast share table; it doesn't have to be huge! The event will be informal with plenty of time to discuss, share and create. We are scheduled to finish by 12.30am.
What we would like to achieve from this event:
- Build on our understanding of what matters to women and young women in Oldham
- Understand how we can better respond to women/young women's experiences and the realities of their lives
- Identify how we can work together to ensure the barriers women face, because of their gender, are reduced; especially where service design/delivery fails to take gender into account
- The Event kick-starts a conversation in Oldham that leads to a commitment to explore and progress gender-informed and gender-specific holistic services with women/young women, to drive forward the changes necessary to improve their experiences and outcomes.
Further information needed? Please email info@inspirewomenoldham.co.uk
Click here to book tickets.