Represent Women’s roadshow of launches continues across the region
Shining a Spotlight on the Women and Girls Sector
The next three events in a series of six took place in Durham, Teesside and then South Tyneside
April saw Represent Women’s roadshow of launches continue to shine a much-needed light on the women and girls’ sector.
The event began with an introduction to the work of Represent Women, followed by presentations from North East women and girls’ organisations. The highlight of the event was hearing about the essential work being done by these organisations to bring real change to our communities.
The Middlesbrough event, held in the Middelsbrough College STEM confernec room, featured speakers from the Women’s Health Hub in Hartlepool, POW, Rubies, Clevland Women’s Network and My Sisters Place
The Durham event was hosted in Elvet Methodist church in central Durham and featured Aspire Learning Support and Wellbeing, Sisters of Support, RSACC and FREE Woman community.
South Tyneside saw the spotlight shone on Sangini, WHIST and Workie Ticket at WHIST’s women’s center on Miler End Road in the heart of South Shields.
Standing on the shoulders of giants
Cullagh Warnock, a founder and Steering Group member of Represent Women, provided an introduction to their work:
‘We stand on the shoulders of women who have gone before – notably the North East Women’s Network, alongside many other initiatives and networks.’
Represent Women received five years of funding from the National Lottery Community Fund, with staff coming into post in the summer of 2024.
Coming together
For Erin Parker Leonard, Director of Policy and Advocacy, the first event was an opportunity to bring the women and girls sector and its allies together:
‘Our speakers were amazing. We have such a fantastic range of great women and girls organisations in the North East.
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Our wins are more than our challenges and that’s what keeps us going
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The game changer of cake- the women are loved and nurtured and we reach the hearts of over 380 girls
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The light on the women’s face when an opportunity is created
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Plugging gaps- Belief, understanding and survivor led. ’
Our Vision
Represent Women is here to provide an independent advocacy voice for the by-and-for women’s sector. We want to add value to the fantastic work already being done by individual organisations and existing networks, not to duplicate or compete with that work.
Represent Women also aims to take every opportunity to increase funding for women’s organisations in our region. Research in 2022 shows that by-and-for women’s organisations make up 3.6% of all charities in the UK but receive only 1.8% of the funding – we want to change this.