SI Slough, Windsor and Maidenhead Projects
Each Soroptimist International club identifies the needs of its community, then establishes specific projects to address these needs. All our projects relate to one or more of the six Programme Focus Areas: Economic and Social Development, Education, Environment, Health, Human Rights and the Status of Women, and International Goodwill and Understanding.
More information is available in the Our Work pages, where you can read more about the current Programme Focus aims and the Quadrennial Project, supported by all clubs in the Federation.
The projects listed below include some of the local and international issues we research and support in SI Slough, Windsor and Maidenhead:
Slough Contact Centre
The club became aware that there was an urgent need for a Contact Centre in the Slough area. A centre provides a safe place for a non-resident parent to meet their children. The centre is open on two Saturday afternoons each month.
Club members had been volunteers at the Maidenhead Contact Centre for some years when it became apparent that many families were having to travel from Slough. The club assessed the need for an additional centre in the area and then went ahead with setting up a centre in conjunction with the National Association of Contact Centres www.naccc.org.uk. A management committee has been set up and teams of volunteers run the centre. The project will be ongoing.
Aqua Boxes
The Club purchases a 'box' which will ultimately act as a water filtration plant but can also be filled with necessities.
The Club is now completing the task of filling its fourth aqua box with various items such as spades, cooking equipment and clothes. The filled aqua box will eventually find be sent to one of the many disaster areas of the world where its contents will assist the local population.
Updates
East Berkshire Women's Aid
The Club helps to provide items for Christmas Hampers for the women and children in the local Refuge
The Club is taking part in the London Chilterns Region project to provide Women's Refuges with some Christmas goodies. Club members also help with providing toiletries and a small amount of funding each year.
Updates
East Berkshire Womens Aid is a registered charity originally set up in 1974 to provide temporary, emergency refuge accommodation and support to women and children fleeing domestic violence. The areas we cover includes Slough, Windsor and Maidenhead, Ascot, Iver and Burnham however we do help families from all over the country.
In the refuge we offer a full support plan from the day of arrival, including help with benefits or finances, housing options, childcare-activities and education placements, a counselling service and healthcare. This support will continue for as long as it is required, when the family become re-housed elsewhere.
We also provide an outreach service to offer support to those that feel a refuge is not an option but would benefit from advice and emotional support, we run four drop-ins based in Slough, Iver and Burnham and anyone, male or female, suffering domestic violence can access this service.
East Berkshire Womens Aid also run a twelve week ‘freedom programme’ open to all women in the community, to enable them to recognise the signs of an abuser, and empower women to take steps to prevent domestic abuse happening to them.
If anyone would like any more information about any of our services please contact East Berkshire Womens Aid on 01753 693472 or 0800 085 2654.
Audiology Department, St Marks Hospital
The President's Charity for 06/07 is to raise money for the League of Friends at St Mark's Hospital in Maidenhead which is assisting in equipping the new Audiology Department. President Lucinda has a particular interest in the local hospital.
Mr Ralph Svenssen, Chairman of the League of Friends at St Marks, gave a talk at the club on 17th May explaining that they have undertaken to provide £30,000 of funding for the Audiology Department to purchase much needed specialist electronic equipment. The club hopes to assist this effort during the year.