Soul Purpose 360 - Resilient Women Build Communities

I work for a local authority and freelance for Soul Purpose 360. I am also a union rep and I have chaired race equality networks for staff. This experience has given me a greater insight to the issues that people who look like me come up against in the workplace and in wider society.

I met Soul Purpose 360’s founder Palma Black at the organisation’s International Women’s Day event in 2022, and it was so refreshing being in a room with a lot of powerful Black women leading discussions and workshops. From there I joined the Soul Purpose 360 membership. When the co-ordinator role came up for Resilient Women Build Communities, I applied straight away. I was excited to be in that space, empowering Black women to help themselves, and providing knowledge and information. I realised that there was a gap around that. With the right information, and resources people could help and empower themselves and I wanted to be a part of that.

We launched Resilient Women Build Communities in Croydon in February 2023 and since then it’s gone from strength to strength. We run two workshops a month which are very much directed by the members. I co-ordinate and make the arrangements but it’s our members who decide what themes and topics they want to learn more about. This in turn brings in more attendees because we’re covering things the community want. We encourage the members to facilitate workshops which has boosted their confidence and opened up opportunities for them.

Sessions about money and financial support have been popular. In Croydon we’ve had council tax hikes and that’s impacted our participants directly, including myself, so to have that support and gain more knowledge around those areas has really been quite powerful. As well as focusing on budgeting and the cost of living crisis, we have covered insurance and health policies and things that can help people if the worst did happen or they needed some medical care.

From some of the sessions, the women who were interested in certain areas have now gone on to work directly in them. One of our women from the financial focus workshop is now directly doing that work with group members because of our workshop. Some have gone on to set up their own projects and businesses and to be trainers sharing their expertise in other forums. It’s stories like these, about empowerment, that make me want to keep going.

Within our group in Croydon, Black women having a safe space they can come to on a regular basis is so helpful. I’ve really seen a lot of women come out of their shells and be more open and willing to talk and share information with one another. I’ve seen women who said they wouldn’t normally take time for themselves making sure they take that time now because of our workshops on selfcare. You can see women looking happier and more vibrant than they did when I first met them at the start of the programme.

We also do feedback forms and the comments are impactful; one person even commented that it’s changed their family life. Their family commented on the change they’d seen in this woman and how she presents – she’s more cheerful and refreshed. The programme has a wider impact. It’s not just on the individual women, it’s on their families as well.

For our group, we’ve seen lots of women increase their confidence and that’s really empowering and motivating to see. Confidence is key because without it in certain spaces Black women might not feel they’re able to speak up or be heard.

Even with the workshop themes ideas being gathered from the members in the WhatsApp group and at workshops, this part of being heard, increasing confidence and making them comfortable in the space.

We’ve also encouraged our members to step up and facilitate sessions and those have been some of our best sessions, when one of our own members takes charge and says, ‘yes I feel ready now. I’ve been coming for a few weeks and I want to facilitate a workshop’, that’s brilliant because it has a knock-on effect on other members who think, if she can do it, I can too.

I know that there are women who have become friends through the group, they meet up outside of the group. I also meet up with members outside of the group too. We go for meals, we’ve been out to a show and the communication it all stems through WhatsApp. We have our Croydon group and there’s a national Soul Purpose 360 group and a lot of connections are made through that as well.

A group of our regular members have created their own Soul Purpose 360 garden which is flourishing. The women attend the allotment on a weekly basis with a rota system in place. Produce from the garden is shared at our empowerment workshops and its tasty too. This has a positive impact on their physical and mental health, improved their knowledge about food growing and so much more.

We also have the National Black Women’s Networking and Empowerment Circle. It’s an incredible network on WhatsApp that’s so far reaching both nationally and internationally. We have members in Rwanda and Monserrat who joined recently. A Croydon member moved back to Serria Leone and set up a Soul Purpose 360 group there!

It’s a place where women can come together and you’ll meet like-minded people that you’d never have met otherwise if it wasn’t for that national group and that space. That’s why it’s so important. We can share skills and knowledge, we can support each other. And it’s with other women who just get it, you don’t have to explain anything. Everyone is on the same foot.

Because there are a lot of professional women in the membership it’s a great resource. For example, last year for Black History Month a local authority reached out to me because of the work I do and they were looking for a poet for an event. I put a message on the national group and voila there was a poet and she went to facilitate an event for Black History Month.

Black History Month this year is about Reclaiming Narratives. In March, Soul Purpose 360 launched a campaign called Definition Redefined which is all about Black women reclaiming their narratives.

For us Black History Month is a positive experience; the title of our project says it all: Resilient Women Build Communities. To be able to highlight those resilient Black women through history who have stood up and fought for us it’s really motivating and empowering to keep trying to make positive change around the inequalities that do still exist, especially for women. So yes, it’s vital to showcase and celebrate the women that came before us and it gives us the motivation to keep pushing for more change and equality.

For more information on Soul Purpose 360, please visit their website.