Championing freedom for disadvantaged women

Women’s Health Matters champions freedom for disadvantaged women and girls so they may have a fair chance at a better life. They received a grant from Jimbo’s Fund to support their Rosebuds project, a weekly group for women whose children live elsewhere.

Can you tell us a bit about Women’s Health Matters?

Women’s Health Matters is a charity based in Leeds. We work intensively with disadvantaged and vulnerable women, their families, and girls in and around Leeds. We specialise in professionally facilitated peer support and education groups and providing one to one support. We work intensively with women and girls who are most at risk, including those experiencing domestic violence, sexual and emotional abuse; those with children in care or at risk of being removed; young mums and disadvantaged parents and their children; women seeking asylum; women with learning disabilities; and women with complex needs or mental health and wellbeing needs. We also support with parenting and pregnancy choices. We take a woman-centred holistic approach, creating a safe, nurturing environment to help women recover their confidence, explore their own needs, and regain control over their lives. In addition, we are partners in Leeds Domestic Violence Service, Being You Leeds, the Women & Girls Alliance Leeds, and Women Friendly Leeds. In 2022/23 we worked intensively with 1,214 women and girls.

What did your Jimbo’s Fund grant enable you to do?

The funding received via the Jimbo’s Fund grant enabled us to continue running the ‘Rosebuds’ group for a year. Rosebuds is a weekly group for women whose children live elsewhere, which may mean that they have been removed at birth, adopted, or live with friends and family under a Special Guardianship Order. The group provides a blend of peer support and structured sessions. Sessions we have delivered cover topics such as identifying abusive relationships, recognising the impact of abuse on children, and coping with change.

The continuation of this project has meant that we have been able to strengthen the group’s reputation among our main referrers, namely Children’s Social Work Services, Leeds Domestic Violence Service, the NHS, 3rd Sector organisations, and the women of Leeds themselves.

Can you tell us about the impact of what you do on the people you work with?

Funding Rosebuds for a year allowed us to support 43 women within the group, and 13 women through one-to-one work. There have been 116 children linked to women attending Rosebuds. One of the women summarised Rosebuds by saying “It’s all made me realise that the way I was bringing up my kids wasn’t right… but that’s what I had and so I just didn’t know”. Since this, she has been granted partial custody of her children.

As a result of attending Rosebuds, 93% of women said they would end or change an abusive relationship. Around half of women felt that the quantity/quality of time with their children had improved. In key indicators of future child removal, 93% of women said they had improved their coping strategies, 67% of women felt substantially more capable, 93% felt better supported and 86% of women better understood the impact of abuse on children.

What are some of the biggest challenges you face as an organisation?

The current funding landscape is our biggest challenge. Funding success rates have decreased. Funding criteria changes, and the needs of our beneficiaries increase, and more and more funders only want to fund short term. With some longer standing grants and contracts there have been both cuts to funding, and if there has been an increase, this is not in line with inflation, and is a cut in real terms. All this leads to real challenges in ensuring delivery of vital services, continuation of support for our service users and beneficiaries, and both recruitment and retention of experienced staff as they need job security, especially in these times of uncertainty around the increases in cost of living.

How is your organisation preparing for the future, and what kind of funding is needed?

We ensure we have a solid, extensive fundraising plan across various types of funders; for example, local authority, NHS, Ministry of Justice, West Yorkshire Combined Authority, Trusts and Foundations and local grant makers, private enterprises and individuals. Long term, core funding is what is most needed, enabling us to continue to function and respond to the growing needs of disadvantaged women, their families, and girls in Leeds, in addition to specific project funding for programmes and services. To help with sustainability, we are starting to develop social enterprise income through delivery of professional training programmes and are looking to develop other ways of generating income and in-kind support through legacy funding, personal giving, events, and corporate sponsorship.