Where From? Where Now?

Keep on standing

This is a card given by a friend to Lucy, one of the women who is part of my project.

When she showed it to me it rang so true. It was a phrase that has come into my mind on so many occasions over these last months working on this project.  For Lucy, and for all of the other women I have been working with.

All of their stories are entirely individual. But for each of them one thing is the same – that they have survived not just one, but a series of incredibly traumatic events in their lives.  They have spoken of experiences of sexual abuse, emotional abuse, domestic violence as well as neglect and loss of children. Each time I come away from talking to these women I want to know where their strength has come from to fight on, to keep on standing and moving on.

So I wanted to put this up on International Women’s Day for each of the women I have got to know over these last months. And the many others I have not yet met.

Lucy, the same lady who received this card, announced today that St Mungo’s aims to develop the first national showcase of best practice, ideas and innovation around supporting homeless and vulnerable women. St Mungo’s are launching a campaign: Rebuilding Shattered Lives, which will begin during the homelessness charity’s Action Week (18-24 June).

The campaign will cover nine themes including childhood trauma and domestic violence, as well as educational and employment opportunities, and restoring links with families and children.

Please do read here to learn more about this.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 8th, 2012 at 4:05 pm. It is filed under blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.