Women's Fund

Reporting of sexual offences is significantly increasing across the Northumbria Police Area and the demand for the services of Rape Crisis Tyneside and Northumberland is growing. Through a grant from the Women’s Fund we have helped ensure their phone and email support is able not only to continue, but also to expand to meet rising demand. The service provides immediate support to alleviate emotional distress and acts as a point of referral to wider support services, as well as encouraging reporting.

The Sunderland Women’s Centre is a safe place for women from a range of different ethnic backgrounds living in the city who want to learn English. This includes women from the local Bangladeshi community, asylum seekers and refugees, as well as those who have come as economic migrants. Forty five women can participate in speaking and listening sessions as a first step thanks to a grant from the Women’s Fund.

The Josephine and Jack Project delivers sexual health and relationships education to women with learning disabilities and has done so since 2004. Learning disabled women have poorer health and relationship outcomes than the rest of the female population and the group use a life size cloth doll that opens up to help women understand how their bodies work and the self-care they need to give themselves. The Women’s Fund has paid for replace the original Josephine doll that had become worn out; enabling this successful project to keep supporting local women.

“Thanks to the Women’s Fund our project can support even more women with learning disabilities in the North East to make positive life choices around their health, relationships and wellbeing.”

The West End Women and Girls weekly drop-in provides advice to help women who need advice on a wide range of issues from drug and alcohol abuse to housing support, health and well-being, computer skills training, job search and domestic abuse support. Women who attend come from diverse cultural backgrounds including the Bangladesh, Libya, Afghanistan, Somalia, Pakistan and Algerian communities as well as white British women and the charity encourage community integration through all of its projects. Situated in the heart of Elswick, each drop-in often attracts more than fifty women and the Women’s Fund has helped keep this valued service open.

“The women really support each other when they see someone is feeling down or have pressing problems. They have become a community in themselves.”