Rivers LPC is a Crawley-based charity set up in 2011 to provide support to women struggling to access mainstream services due to health issues, economic issues and/or language barriers. Its volunteers work with women across three local community centres delivering English-language sessions, providing information, advice and guidance and confidence and wellbeing work.
Black and minoritised women experience barriers and social stigma when it comes to accessing support services. The West Sussex area and Crawley Borough Council don’t see a need for bespoke attention or awareness around the specific issues faced by BAME women. Unfortunately these women are classed as ‘hard to reach’ communities. The grant funded the launch of our Validating Voices campaign to start breaking down those barriers.
We worked with groups of local women to understand their experience of accessing services and challenge myths around seeking support. While this was happening, we identified women leaders to help influence other women and service leaders. These steps help to get equal representation for Black and minoritised women in the health and wellbeing sector.
Purchasing equipment is a significant expense when it comes to campaigning work. Funding meant we could buy a camera and tripod and train volunteers to use the equipment. Now, we’re able to create our own videos. The grant meant we could host an information event day, too, which brought together local organisations to talk about their services. Promoting the event using videos in different languages helped us draw in women from different backgrounds.
More than 100 women came along to our awareness-raising event. They were treated to pamper sessions, lots of delicious food and goody bags. We gave out wellbeing leaflets and promoted a lot of free services for women. Our social media campaign was running alongside this work, encouraging women to get in touch for support with their mental health needs. It raised awareness in local government of the fact that services like ours are having to get funding from outside of the local area.
Education plays an equally huge role in campaigning and awareness-raising. Our founder, Jeredyne, attended the Feminist Leadership Programme with WRC and funded by Rosa. This helped her to identify the attributes of a feminist leader in a structured, accessible way. She was then able to pass this onto the team and volunteers to improve the way Rivers LPC works as a collective.
Support from Rosa has been overwhelming, not just in terms of funding but with the practicalities and all-round support, too. With the dire consequences of Covid-19, the Rivers team is continuing to raise awareness around women’s mental health. We’re continuing to reach out to more and more women.
Visit Rivers LPC’s website and follow on Twitter.