YWCA Young Women's Centre
Who are you?
We are the YWCA, a national organisation that has run for 150 years, the YWCA Bristol Yong Women’s Centre has existed since 1996. We are one of 18 projects across England and Wales that offers support and information for young women aged 11-30. Each project offers slightly different services The YWCA has its roots in being a Christian organisation in origin, but now fully reflects the modern cultural, religious and ethnic diversity of society.
When and why did you start up?
We started the Bristol project in 1996, to promote the aims of the national organisation, offering counselling and information initially; we have grown into a more comprehensive service.
Who do you support and how ?
We target young women from an age range of 11-30. Due to our location it has mainly been women within the South Bristol area, but we are open to all women in Bristol.
We offer counselling, support groups, informal education around issues of self-esteem, experiences at school, relationships, etc. We have drawn around 40 odd women into our informal educational groups and offer the chance for women to explore issues or concerns in various groups.
We have targeted Young Asian women, in particular, and have tailored services to meet their needs. Our young Asian Women’s support – Aap Ki Apni has promoted information, informal education, and tackled issues in a culturally sensitive way. The FAB 4U is a group developed for 13-19 year old Asian women, based around informal learning and other services for this particular age range.
We have also targeted lesbian and bisexual women, offering support via our Lesbian and Bisexual Young Women’s Group- ‘Women who love women’. We also set up a number of young mums group.
Our aim is to reach those women who are socially excluded, and have missed out on mainstream service provision.
What is your most memorable achievement?
We’ve had a number of achievements of equal merit. Firstly, we are proud of establishing a well-used, busy service. Reaching young women from various backgrounds. Creating key services like counselling, group support and informal education.
We are also proud of how successful we have been in reaching young Asian women. When we started the project in 1996, there was little provision to meet the needs of this group. We have made this a priority in our service.
Our work with Lesbian and Bisexual women is also an achievement worth mentioning. Between 20-30% of users of the service are Lesbian or Bisexual. The "Women Who Love Women" Support Group meets provide support for lesbian and bisexual women and for those questioning their sexuality.
Our Informal Education and Personal Development Group Sessions are another notable success. The sessions are aimed at giving women the chance to gain confidence and self-esteem, dealing with sexual health issues, developing stress management strategies and understanding relationships. We are working with outside agencies and schools to develop this service beyond our premises.
What are your plans for the future?
We would like to expand into a larger women’s centre with more staff, so that we can develop our informal educational program. More outreach counselling would be another goal.
Tell us about your Staff and Volunteers?
We have 9 paid staff (most are part-time). We take on student counsellors, who are in their final year of their counselling diploma. We would like to have more capacity to take on more volunteers, especially young women.
If you could change any piece of legislation what would it be?
The YWCA deals with many cases of sexual assault or rape, where we have supported women going through the legal process. We are a campaigning force as well as a service provider, and as an organisation we would like the legal obstacles and difficulties, faced by women who decide to pursue legal proceedings, eradicated or drastically reduced.
Do you belong to any partnerships?
We work in a number of partnerships, on different levels; operational partnership, where we work with other agencies to provide a service; there are formal funding partnerships and also partnerships developed to test the feasibility of further work with particular agencies. Some of the groups we’re working with include Knowle West Healthy Living Centre, Bristol Pakistani Women’s Organisation, the Youth Service and supported housing projects.
Who are your funders?
We’ve had funding from the Learning Skills Council (LSC) for our informal education work, which varies each year. We also get funding from the Greater Bristol Foundation and Bristol Widening Participation Fund.
What do you get out of being a member of Voscur?
Our main benefits come from reading the newsletter, which gives us lots of info on various issues including funding which is of particular interest.
The contacts, updates and opportunities for networking all help the YWCA Centre.
How can people contact you?
Tel. 0117 9716770.
email us at bristol@ywca-gb.org.uk
Or you can visit the YWCA Bristol young Women’s Centre at:
107 wells Rd, Totterdown, BS4 2BS.
If your group would like to be profiled in a future Voscur newsletter or on our website, please contact Darron Thevarajah at the Voscur office Tel. 909 9949,
or email: darron@voscur.org