Local charity supporting 8000 women every year receives Communi-tea Grant

Lancashire Women, a charity that was set up 1985 in Blackburn, supports over 8000 women across Lancashire every year from four main sites in the county and a further seventy outreach locations.

Originating as a group of women turning to each other with concerns about the local infant mortality rate, it has continued to grow and adapt as the local community and its needs have changed. The charity now offers help with everything from life skills, mental health and wellbeing, homelessness and debt advice.

The charity provides confidence-building courses including ‘Mind Fit’ and ‘Eyes Wide Open’ a domestic abuse safety programme. No GP referral is necessary to access the charity and many women discover the programme through word of mouth.

It also supports women through its Justice & Safety team in Lancashire who have been released from the criminal justice system and need help with finding new accommodation, advice and even collection from prison on their day of release. 

Adele Helm, discovered Lancashire Women when she enrolled on a 12 week confidence building course after taking some time off work. She then volunteered which boosted her self-image and now six years later is Business Development Manager based at the Accrington Head Quarters.

“Lancashire Women takes a person-centred approach and each woman and her story is treated as individual. When they come to us, they only need to tell their story once and we can then do the rest. Often women are required to re-live traumatic events as they are signposted and Lancashire Women operates in a joined-up way, working with other organisations to prevent this,” says Adele.

“We are there for every woman in the county that needs support, not just those with multiple complex needs. It might be that a woman feels that she has lost her way in life and just needs someone to talk to. We have seen a big increase over the past few months as women shouldered the burden of home-schooling, looking after young children and loneliness during the pandemic.”

 The charity was a recipient of one of Lancashire Tea’s Communi-tea grants which support organisations across the county who are connecting people.

To find out more about Lancashire Women visit https://lancashirewomen.org