International Women's Day 2019

International Women’s Day is on March 8th every year and is a worldwide event day to honour and celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. It’s easy to think International Women’s Day is solely about celebrating the women with recognisable names and achievements. That’s not true. It’s about celebrating the strong women around you.

A lot of women struggle to celebrate success and achievements or do not feel comfortable talking about them as they don’t want to be perceived as ‘bragging’ or ‘showing off.’ We were no exception.

In 2016 Newcastle City Council concluded a procurement process and awarded a contract (Refuge and Outreach) for domestic abuse services to a new provider. We were shocked and deeply saddened by the decision to award the Refuge and Outreach service contract to a less experienced domestic abuse provider. After 40 years of providing specialist support services the future of Newcastle Women’s Aid was uncertain.

Luckily for us our all-female Trustees and Directors were committed to continuing services for women and girls affected by domestic abuse. During January 2017 we met and consulted with women and girls who accessed our services and with staff from local women’s groups to find out what the gaps were in service provision. The feedback we received was invaluable for helping us redevelop our new services.

This International Women’s Day we would like to celebrate our own achievements and those of the strong and empowered women who we have worked with within the last 20 months. We were so impressed with the positive outcomes which they have achieved that we decided to write our very first Impact Report.

The report details the work which we do and captures the outcomes women have achieved. Although the women featured in the report are anonymised, they are very much a part of our history as they continue to shape and develop our services.