Anawim’s 30th birthday reception offers pearls of wisdom about women’s needs in the twenty first century.
As Anawim celebrates 30 years of supporting the most vulnerable women in society, the birthday reception held at the prestigious 14th floor offices of Gowling WLG Solicitors is underway along with the silent auction to raise funds for their new facility. Many local businesses have donated prizes to help make the event a success and enable them to cater for the women’s needs. Prizes already donated include spa days, massages, hairdressing, and a tour of the House of Lords.
It is with thanks to Lorna Gavin Head of Diversity, Inclusion & Corporate Responsibility at Gowling WLG that Anawim’s birthday event took place at Gowling WLG offices who also provided the catering and waitress service.
Unfortunately Lorna Gavin was not able to attend the event, but Joanne Putnam - Diversity Inclusion Advisor introduced Joy Doal the CEO of Anawim. Joy recalled the journey from 1986 to present day and a purple time line poster confirms the milestones of how it has grown into a multifaceted service that offers a wide range of support from psychosocial intervention, therapeutic art, money advice and key skills for life such as English, mathematics and computing. In addition to this Anawim are able to offer somewhere for the women to spend time getting to know themselves and forge new relationships and learn the value of team work. We see many women in the Birmingham area with multiple complex needs and may struggle with daily life. It has become a place of safety where the women find a sense of belonging and hope of new beginnings. It is fair to say that Anawim provides holistic support in many areas of the women’s life, from prison and street outreach, to counselling to help the women come to terms with their traumatic pasts. It provides specialist services including domestic violence advice, family support, early interventions and a range of courses to help women develop new skills and create better lives for themselves. So from humble roots our service has blossomed into a thriving hive of activity.
That said all of the above would not have been possible without the generous financial support from local Businesses.
Mr Robin Daniels one of the trustees from JABBS took the stage next and spoke very highly of the work that is carried out at Anawim. JABBS are a charitable foundation who support Anawim and have done for a number of years. It is with thanks to a cash injection from The JABBS Foundation, Anawim is set to open a new facility that will offer crisis accommodation to women leaving prison with nowhere else to go. They will offer round-the-clock support drop-in facilities and a response service to help women as needs arise, including counselling victims of rape and sexual violence.
The silent auction raised around one thousand seven hundred pounds to further assist the new facility to carry out essential work for the women most in need. Some of these women suffered greatly at the hands of their abusers, the system and eventually them-selves and Anawim aim to support them through some of their most difficult times.