News

PCVS’ Women’s Forum has teamed up with The Green Backyard to offer women who are central to Peterborough, the opportunity to take some time out for themselves at a series of growing and environment workshops. The first one kicks off this Friday (6th of August) and will be the first in a series of four workshops. The main aim is for women to regain self – confidence after it became evident through discussions in the forum and social prescribing referrals, that women have been negatively impacted by the pandemic through various factors. For example isolation and bereavement, domestic violence/abuse and poor mental health from the effects of taking on multi-faceted roles such as carers, parents, temporary teachers, income providers and homemakers. 

These free workshops are being offered as part of “Wonder Women”, which is an empowering project set up by PCVS’ Women’s Forum who has teamed up with local partners such as Living Sport, Metal, Arts & Minds, The Green Backyard, and Primary Care Networks (Thistlemoor) to help women across Peterborough overcome the negative effects of COVID-19 through the power of social prescribing. The workshops will enable them to build confidence, meet with others, grow self-esteem and improve financial literacy. To support this work £50,000 was awarded from the Thriving Communities Fund, delivered by Arts Council England (ACE) on behalf of the National Academy for Social Prescribing (NASP).  

The first set of events kicked off this month with a series of creative art workshops hosted by arts organisation Metal with intuitive artist Sa’adiah Khan at Paston Farm. The workshops were attended by about nine women across the sessions who had the chance to meet each other, share conversation and decide on the structure of future workshops, whilst experimenting with various forms of art making! The women enjoyed exploring messy art, being playful, learning new skills and having fun with various materials. 

Lauren Kendrick, PCVS’ Communities Development Coordinator who facilitates the Women’s Forum is delighted by how successful these workshops have been to date, “The feedback we have had so far is immense. The women who have attended have felt safe and supported enough to engage in open conversations and connect with the other women from their area, whilst having fun and creating some beautiful artwork. I encourage anyone who would like to rebuild their confidence, engage in a fun activity and meet others, to sign up for our next set of sessions which starts on Friday and is hosted by our partner, The Green Backyard” 

These Growing and Environment seesions will be run by artist, Rose Croft and the theme of the first one will be “The Seed and the Spark” where participants will explore simple herb growing through a seasonal cyclical framework; exploring and celebrating what we love about each season, and our own personal relationships with the food we eat, learning a little about the uses and benefits of various herbs and flowers and even making a herbal tea concoction! Please note that these sessions are for women only, you can sign up on Eventbrite by clicking here  – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wonder-women-centralgladstone-growing-and-environment-workshops-tickets-163479326065 

We hope to see you there where you will meet our new “Wonder Women” Community Development Coordinator, Snieguole Maliavskaja who PCVS have been delighted to recently appoint to this new position.