Just for Women Centre

Liese Weatherspoon

“The needs of the women in Stanley are vast. It could be that they are initially presenting with anxiety or depression that make them feel lonely or isolated and is impacting on their mental health but we have different services available to deal with the root causes.

International Women’s Day is important because it’s a chance to educate, raise awareness about women’s equality and to create conditions for the elimination of discrimination against women. It's important to help with social development and help women to participate and recognize achievements and just to challenge all forms of violence, discrimination and exploitation against women. It’s also a fantastic excuse to get all the ladies together because peer support is very important throughout the centre.

What’s so important is that International Women’s Day is worldwide, and that’s the thing that is absolutely phenomenal. It’s incredible to think that everyone will be talking about the particular topic on that particular day. It really is quite something to acknowledge.”

Linda Kirk

“We work with a lot of different communities and we’re seeing worse mental health, lack of access to jobs and lack of access to appointments and care for mental health problems affecting all women. Women are taking a big hit at the moment.

We have a counselling service which we started after COVID-19. We do counselling around mental health and trauma counselling for women who have experienced domestic abuse and sexual violence.

We get people out walking in the fresh air and we use nature. We have a garden that we use as a meditation and yoga space, too. We do exercises tailored to the women we support, what they can do and what they want to do. We look at what the need is and what facilities we have and we match them together, and it’s working. We’re seeing positive effects.

We’ve had fantastic events in the past for International Women’s Day, and it’s a chance for the women to come and dress up and wear the same colour. We treat it like a celebration.

For us it’s the one day where we can talk about being a woman and that’s what we enjoy most of all. It’s so important to recognise these days every year. It’s a great example of our little centre in Stanley being part of such a global experience.”

Just for Women Centre in Stanley, Country Durham supports women affected by poor mental health, disadvantage, domestic violence and lack of access to jobs.You can find out more about their work at https://justforwomen.org.uk/