Our March meet-up will focus on supporting women back and into employment. We will hear from 1st Impressions about their work helping women to create confident first impressions at interview, and Women's Work Lab (awarded our 2021 main grant), on supporting mums by rebuilding confidence and helping them on their journey to find work that works for them and their families.

Further information and book your place on Eventbrite.

Join us on International Women's Day for a walk through Bath sharing stories of local women and girls in our 'Women and Girls of Bath' Treasure Hunt.

Meet at The Holburne Museum at 11am on Friday 8th March.

We will be walking to Locksbrook Cemetery over two hours to visit some of the places on the Treasure Hunt.

You can explore the Treasure Hunt in your own time and at your own pace: email info@bathwomensfund.org.uk to request the information.

With thanks to Helen Pugh, author of Unsung Women of Somerset, for her input and suggestions of new women to include, and to the BRLSI's Bath Extraordinary Women. We will keep developing the resource so all suggestions welcome of other women, girls and places to include.

We enjoyed a wonderful evening discovering how the inspiring learning space and Song Room was developed through the Bath Abbey Footprint project.

Thanks to our amazing speakers:

• Julia Thomson of the Royal Osteoporosis Society about bone health, their free helpline and risk checker.

• Dee Gerrish of We Get It, Bath's cancer support charity, about the weekly Get Together for people dealing with cancer, the #GetItChecked campaign and Scars for Life exhibition.

• Bath Women's Fund member Yvonne Bignall, UK Healthcare and Wellness chair of the G100 Global Network of women leaders, on self-care, supporting our health and wellbeing, and listening to our bodies.

Thanks to Bath Women's Fund member, Cat Heale, for providing this interactive and practical Upskill session for parents and/or students preparing for GCSEs and A Levels.

We had a lovely evening at the 3 Cafe Kitchen hearing from local organisations creating -opportunities for Disabled people:

Lucy Beattie of Three Ways School and B&NES Supported Employment

Jo Stoaling, Headteacher at Three Ways School and 3 Café Kitchen

Fiona Skinner, Headteacher of Fosse Way School

Anna-Kate Taylor of Designability

Thanks to Janine Woodward-Grant and Rachel Hale for giving Bath Women's Fund members and friends such a powerful insight into the challenges faced by unpaid carers and the support available at our Potluck Picnic at The Carers' Centre (Bath and North East Somerset) during #CarersWeek2023.

We were all moved and inspired by Fiona's story and took away clear actions that we can all take to support unpaid carers - if you know anyone who is looking after someone, you can help by:

• Recognising their role

• Listening

• Offering understanding and support

• Repeat

and by sharing information from The Carers' Centre and the B&NES Parent Carer Forum, which Rachel spoke to us about and shared her personal experience as a parent carer.

We welcomed so many members and friends to our 2023 Grants Award Evening, kindly hosted by Newark Works on a warm summer evening in June.

Our members voted to support Black Families Education Support Group with our main grant of £15,000. We also awarded grants of £4,000 to the other two charity finalists as a contribution to their work: Make a Move and Sporting Family Change…

Thanks to Bath Women's Fund member, Alison Haley, and the Cleveland Pools Trust, we all had the opportunity to visit the award-winning Cleveland Pools to learn about their restoration project to bring this heritage Georgian lido back into use as a community pool and provide welcoming and inclusive opportunities for outdoor swimming. Thank you to Samantha Grief, Community Engagement and Volunteer Manager, who took us on a tour of the pools covering its history, the campaign to save it, the restoration itself, the community engagement programme and plans for the future.

We enjoyed a great evening at The Studio in Bath hearing from Abigail Branagan and Residents Annie Lywood and Annie Legge about the creative and tech ideas that flourish in this co-working and development space. Thanks to Abi and Caroline and everyone at The Studio for hosting the event.

It was amazing to learn from Annie Lywood about Sooothe, and touch and feel the stunning therapeutic sensory textile products that she has developed. You can read more about the research and design of these cushions with therapeutic qualities that support the wellbeing of people living with anxiety and stress at https://lnkd.in/gh22nd5d

We enjoyed a wonderful evening at The Holburne Museum on Monday 5th December. Thanks to Louise and Debbie for such an inspiring and insightful understanding of the work of the Holburne's Pathways to Wellbeing project - "changing lives through art". It was fascinating to hear about the difference that engagement in museums and creative activities has made to people's mental health and wellbeing, building connections, skills, confidence and opportunities to give back and support others.

Thanks to Bath Women's Fund member, Cat Heale, for presenting a great upskill session online on 11th October for parents, carers, and students preparing for GCSEs/A Levels. Great, dyslexia-friendly session on how to overcome last-minute revision panic by starting now - focusing on the why, when, and how to revision.

For further information, visit Cat's Dyslexia Catalyst website here.

Thanks to everyone who joined us for the exclusive visit to the Fashion Museum to see the community-led You Choose exhibition and hear from Rosemary Harden and Fleur Johnson, as well as Louise McCabe who represented Bath Women's Fund as one of the 'choosers'.

Louise selected a piece for the exhibition to reflect what fashion means to her, and focused on her interest in sustainable fashion. It was fascinating to see all the choices, and learn about the history and wide range in the collection.

Bath Women’s Fund member Yvonne Bignall lead us on a lovely circular walk to explore the beauty of North East Somerset Greyfield Wood across to Timsbury Basin. Yvonne loves these woods and the local area, and runs Nordic Walking groups all year round.

Wonderful to be able to hold our first in-person Grants Award Evening, kindly hosted by Mentoring Plus on a warm summer evening. Thanks to everyone involved and all the members who could join us - the three charity presentations were really inspiring and moving, with SARSAS (Somerset and Avon Rape and Sexual Abuse Support) awarded our main grant of £15,000.

We were pleased to award grants of £4,000 to the other two charities as a contribution to their work: Voices and Creativity Works

We were also delighted to hear an update from Women’s Work Lab who were awarded the main grant in 2021.

Experienced therapist Jan Robertson lead this Upskill session on how to support children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing.

Nearly 50% of today’s women professionals believe that leadership, mentoring and networking opportunities can help support their career and growth after the pandemic. Students of Bath School of management organised and hosted this learning and networking event for us with speakers Ruth Keily, CEO of Mentoring Plus; Jane Ellis-Brush from charity 1st Impressions; Angela Fumpson, founder of White Tiger and Veronica Hannon, Director of Transform Communications.

A celebration of female entrepreneurship kindly hosted by Cassia with guest speakers:

Anna Sabine, Founder of The Female Edge for women entrepreneurs and passionate about encouraging women in business.

Annie Legge, co-founder of DOT PROJECT, a women-led cooperative which enables civil society and social enterprises to thrive through responsible technology.

Traci Lewis, co-founder of Catalyse Change CIC which seeks to inspire, empower and skill girls and young women as changemakers.

We enjoyed Spring sunshine for our walk through Bath exploring urban trees with Helen Schofield and Fiona Bell. Our guides were so knowledgeable and passionate and opened our eyes to trees we walk past every day without really seeing them.

This event was kindly hosted by Bath City Farm for the Twerton and Whiteway Community Network, Bath Women's Fund and SARI.

SARI led this session to equip us with the knowledge we need to deal with hate crime confidently and appropriately.

We were so pleased to be back in person for our first event of 2022: our Potluck Picnic in The Electric Bar at Komedia on Monday 7th March, the day before International Women's Day.