A group of women’s organisations are working together to develop a new infrastructure organisation for the women and girls’ VCSE in the area covered by the new Combined Authority (Northumberland, North Tyneside, Newcastle, Gateshead, South Tyneside, Sunderland and County Durham). We anticipate the new organisation will work on behalf of women’s organisations to:
- Influence policy – responses to public consultation, holding local statutory bodies to account
- Challenge structures / decisions collectively – providing a collective voice for the women’s sector
- Influence commissioning practices
- Develop partnerships with the primary purpose of joint funding / bidding and help organisations/partnerships to become contract-ready
- Gather evidence around the importance of targeted work with women and girls, women only spaces and outcomes for women
- Link into existing networks and new opportunities to network with each other, both within and beyond the women and girl’s sector
- Share and champion work being carried out by member organisations
- Support and development opportunities for smaller organisations
- Aim to maximise new funding opportunities for the women’s sector
Women’s sector organisations in the area have been calling for this sort of organisation for a number of years. If you are a women and girls organisation and would like to hear more about it, tell us what you need from such an organisation, or go on our mailing list to keep in touch with what’s happening, please get in touch with Elaine Slater (elaine.slater@tynesidewomenshealth.org.uk), Siobhan O’ Neil (esiobhanoneil@gmail.com) or Cullagh Warnock (cullaghw@gmail.com). We really want to hear from you.