Manorhamilton

  We at the North Leitrim Women’s Centre have always tried to listen to the needs of local women and have worked tirelessly over the last 20 years to provide supports and services for local women, be a voice for local women and provide a space for local women to come together to learn new skills, build friendships, access services and just create a space for women to come together.

  Recent government decisions and proposed funding arrangements for 2015 onwards will have a serious impact on the future of the North Leitrim Women’s Centre and our ability to continue our work with local women.

  The North Leitrim Women’s Centre is one of 17 locally based Community Women’s Projects around the country that make up the National Collective of Community based Women’s Networks (NCCWN). The NCCWN is currently funded under the Local Community Development Programme (LCDP) which enables us to provide supports and services to local women in communities like our own. This funding makes our work possible and without it there is a real risk that we will not be able to continue our work and keep our Women’s Centre open.  This current funding programme is due to end on the 31st of December.

  We need your help to highlight the work we do and the impact the loss of our centre will have on you as women who have used the centre, this is an opportunity for you to let the Minister know how much your women’s centre means to you and your community and ask that funds are found and secured to ensure we can keep working with and on behalf of local women.

We have attached a template letter that we are asking women to personalise. I know in the age of computers it’s easier to just print off a letter but handwritten personalised letters have a much greater impact. We are asking you to look at the template, and use it as a guide to hand write and personalise a letter stating what the centre means to you, what supports you’ve accessed, course you’ve done etc. it doesn’t have to be long just personal.

  All 17 projects across the country are asking women to do this and we will post them all the same day. Just write your letter and address an envelope to the Minister and bring it into the Women’s Centre by Friday the 11th of July, we will provide the stamps and post all the letters on the same day.

  Please forward this to whoever you think will support our work, ask your friends, family and work colleagues etc  and remember to ask them to drop there letter into the women’s centre.

  Thank you for your support, your voice matters …. Let’s send a clear message that we do not want to see services and supports for women to close in our community

  Staff & Board of the North Leitrim Women’s Centre.

Template

Insert your address

Dear Minister Hogan,

I am writing to express my concern about the future of The North Leitrim Women’s Centre. Over the years I have done several training courses (name Course(s)/ and/or attended The Well Woman Clinic/Day Out) with them in which we learnt about (name what it was you learnt and how it bettered you), Women’s Human Rights and Government commitments to women’s equality. As a result of this I have become much more actively involved in my community.

I urge you to honour the commitments made by successive governments to equal rights for women. Please ring fence funding for the National Collective of Community Based Women’s Networks. The work of the network is valuable and nobody else is doing it.

Yours sincerely