At our February meeting we chose the Young Women’s Housing Project (YWHP) as our charity to support in 2014.
The YWHP is a project for young women aged 16 to 25 who have been affected by sexual abuse, sexual exploitation or sexual/domestic violence. It was nominated as a charity for Seven Hills WI to support by member Kat Rex-Jones and won the member vote held at a recent meeting.
The Sheffield-based charity provides safe places to live and specialist support to help young women to overcome the effects of abuse. It is one of the only specialist projects in the UK offering outreach support and supported accommodation to young women survivors of sexual abuse.
Seven Hills WI member Kat Rex-Jones said: “I nominated the YWHP having worked closely with the Chair of the charity which gave me a real chance to find out more about what they do and how much pressure they are under to continue to fund their service.
“Specialist housing support is a very important and valued service and I am really proud that the women of SHWI will be supporting this cause over the coming year.”
Katie Ryan from the YWHP added: “We are absolutely delighted to be chosen as the Seven Hills WI cause for 2014. This is a great opportunity to raise awareness and increase the profile of the YWHP, as well as receiving much needed funds to continue this essential work with vulnerable girls and young women.”
Each year, we choose a different local charity to raise funds for and in previous years has supported Haven House, the Sheffield Rape and Sexual Abuse Counselling Service, Survivors of Depression in Transition and the Parents’ Association of Children with Tumours and Leukaemia (PACT). Funds are raised through raffles at meetings and events such as the Sheffield Food Festival. Last year also saw us create our own calendarto raise money for PACT.