A warm welcome to….
22 October 2019
....Stacey Kent who joins the team today as Head of Service Development; we welcome her to The Magdalene Group & look forward to working with her.
Thursday 17th October – Basis ‘Working with female sex workers’ training.
21 October 2019
"This week I travelled to Leeds to take part in training on working with female sex workers run by Basis. Basis is a very similar organise to ours up in Leeds and they have recently provided very good CSE training for all our staff. Emily was a great trainer and works as the outreach & sexual health staff member for their adult women’s service so we had lots of great discussions in the breaks about how we can learn from each other as services. We had great discussions around the many types of sex work and busting stereotypes; around stigma and having a person-centred approach, the picture of sex work in the UK, difficulties with mapping and data and a great overview of sex work and the law and safety approaches. We finished by discussing best practice around working with female sex workers and how to make services more sex worker friendly – this was particularly interesting given there were GPs and outreach workers from mental health teams in the group. It was a very interesting and informative day!” Abbie Haines, Outreach Worker
Leeway conference
14 October 2019
"On Friday our Doorway Team had a stall at the annual Leeway Conference. It was such an interesting day with amazing speakers talking around the theme of ‘how others are affected by domestic abuse’. We heard from various speakers with first-hand experiences of domestic abuse such as Zina Wilkinson and her daughter; David Challen and Luke Hart who gave powerful and inspiring testimonies on how domestic abuse and coercive control impacted on their families. We also heard from Kelly Semper from Public Health and Emma Broom from Action for Children about the impact domestic abuse can have on a child’s development and from the Dogs Trust about the impact on pets and their dog fostering scheme. It’s amazing to see how many different types of charities come together to support people around domestic abuse, particularly the Dogs Trust as leaving a pet behind can be a really big barrier to women entering a refuge. It was also really great to hear Emma Hilbreth from the Suzi Lamplugh Trust talking about stalking and how it fits with domestic abuse and the severity of stalking cases, including Alice Ruggle’s case. This is a particularly pertinent issue for us at Doorway so was great to gain a bit more knowledge from her. As usual, it was great to mingle with lots of other services from the region and enjoy a delicious lunch. Thanks for having us Leeway!” Abbie Haines, Outreach Worker
Norwich Street Aid Launch Event
14 October 2019
“On Thursday morning I went along to the launch of Norwich Street Aid, a new partnership between Norwich Business District, Pathways and Norwich Community Foundation aimed at tackling rough sleeping in the city. They launched a new initiative of contactless payment points throughout the city where donations can be made to a central funding pot which will then be distributed to those who most need it. For example, with household items for a new home, travel to interviews or support meetings or to help with reconnection with family. Those sleeping rough can access this through their Pathway’s key workers or we can refer them in! As well as donating money, you can donate resources or your time. For more info see https://www.norfolkfoundation.com/norwich-streetaid/. Nice to see businesses in Norwich coming together around these issues.” Abbie Haines, Outreach Worker
#YouMadeItHappen
11 October 2019
A collective thank you to supporters : Friday 11th October, 2019. #YouMadeItHappen is an opportunity for voluntary sector organisations to say thank you to their supporters and to show them the difference their money and time has made, as well as showing the impact we make as a sector. THANK YOU. #YouMadeItHappen
World Mental Health Day
10 October 2019
The World Health Organisation recognises World Mental Health Day on 10 October every year. This year's theme set by the World Federation for Mental Health is suicide prevention. The Magdalene Group supports World Mental Health Day.
Norfolk Community Foundation : Together for women and girls – with some breaking news!
07 October 2019
"A panel discussion chaired by our Vice-Patron Carol Bundock shone a light on the wide range of community support needed by women and girls, from social activities to maternal mental health provision, and specialist help for women facing exploitation and abuse. It was clear that these services and many more like them are playing a vital role in women’s lives across our county." Suzi Heybourne, Chief Executive of the Magdalene Group, talked about the issues facing charities doing vital work in a challenging funding climate, and how Norfolk Community Foundation is able to help; 'Grant aid is vitally important. We have a skilled, professional staff team who work with women and girls to build trusted relationships, whilst also understanding the nature of sexual violence and abuse. We offer personalised and specialist support to sex working women, victims of sexual exploitation, trafficking and coercion, and help find routes out for women who want to move on. Fundraising is ongoing - we couldn’t just stop because the money has run out.'" Read more at https://www.norfolkfoundation.com/news-events/together-norfolk-shines-brighter/
1st & 2nd October – Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST)
03 October 2019
"This week I took part in a very interesting and intensive two day suicide intervention training through Living Works and Norfolk and Waveney Mind. Myself and other various frontline professionals took part including people from health services, local charities, criminal justice and mental health services. The idea of the course is to break down stigma around suicide, promotes self-reflection about mental health and suicide and to teach a framework for suicide intervention. The framework is called the Pathway for Assisting Life (PAL) and has three main processes; connecting with suicide by asking direct questions, understanding peoples choices by hearing their stories and recognising turning and assisting life through a safe-for-now plan. This is an internationally taught and recognised framework for intervention and an accredited form of suicide first aid. We had some great discussions within the group and all felt the same frustrations regarding services for mental health. However, it was invaluable time to practice interventions and make connections with other local services.” Abbie Haines, Outreach Worker
Recruitment Opportunities
01 October 2019
Please visit our vacancies page for details of our latest recruitment opportunities. https://magdalenegroup.org/home/vacancies/
Theory of Change workshop
25 September 2019
"Today we were fortunate to have Ann Sanders, an independent consultant, via Lloyds Bank Foundation, visit The Magdalene Group to lead a Theory of Change workshop. The team got together to think about the outcomes across our multiple services and the ways in which we can capture these. It was a great reminder of how our work can help lead to differences in the lives of clients." Morwenna Chaffe, CSE Practitioner