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NEWSLETTER Women’s Support Network run a successful women’s group called ‘The Culture Club’. Essentially, the group provides advice and guidance, social activities and educational/recreational opportunities for 10 women living in the Middlesbrough area. Membership of the Culture Club is free and open to any female from the BME Community, asylum seekers or refugees. Participation is diverse in terms of age and nationality. The women’s countries of origin include Zimbabwe, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Yugoslavia and Kenya. Despite some language barriers, the women work extremely well together to discuss and share their stories, emotions, feelings, opinions and suggestions. Primarily, the aim of the group is to provide 1:1 and group support for the women but it also offers women the opportunity to explore the following topics:
As some of these women are experiencing difficulties in settling into a new lifestyle or maybe suffering anxiety as a result of other causes, the group support is vital to their integration into their new communities. Some women have already successfully integrated into their communities and were able to share positive experiences with others. The group has empowered some women to become active and this led to their participation in the International Women’s Day event, held at the Life Store in the Cleveland Centre on the 8th March 2006. Six women attended the event and turned up for the day in traditional dress. The day was very beneficial and the Culture Club women helped us to promote the services we offer and recruit for the next Culture Club. Feedback from the event was very positive and the women stated they had a good time and expressed an interest to help at other events such as the Middlesbrough Mela. One woman from the group is currently in the process of writing a poem about different cultures and lifestyles and she is hoping to develop her communication skills and complete a course at the University of Teesside. Some women have gone onto other courses of further education and training and many of the women from the Culture Club have taken on voluntary work. Many of the women from the group suffer emotional and practical issues. Women’s Support Network is keen to meet the needs of the female BME community, asylum seekers and refugee women and so it is currently running another group on a Tuesday morning called the Social Culture Club. The women from the Culture Club will continue to meet for another 10 weeks and will help to plan outings and visits to local places of interest e.g. the Captain Cook Museum, the Dorman Museum etc. This will help the women to develop social skills and hopefully alleviate stress. We started our 2nd Culture Club in April 2006. Again, this group runs on a Thursday morning at the St Mary’s Centre. The women will be encouraged to share experiences and stories and learn first hand about other cultures etc. The sessions will provide an opportunity for women to highlight and discuss any problems they are experiencing whilst settling into their new communities. The women will be encouraged to participate in a range of activities that will further build their self-esteem and confidence and help them integrate more fully into their communities. These activities will include educational visits (e.g. Hartlepool Quay, Beamish Museum) social outings (e.g. cinema, restaurants), therapeutic sessions (e.g. aromatherapy) and international religious and non- religious festivals and events (e.g. Christmas, Passover, Mothers Day, Ramadan, Divali, Eid, Easter etc). If you would like to find out more about the Culture Club or are interested in coming along please contact Jan or Roxana at Women’s Support Network on (01642) 822335. | |||
