Feathers Futures: Helping Women Rebuild and Thrive
Feathers Futures is a women's centre based in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. We support women over 18 who are facing complex challenges, such as trauma, poverty, domestic abuse, poor mental health, or loneliness.
Feathers Futures is run by a small team of dedicated staff and volunteers who believe in kindness, connection, and community. Our work is deeply values-led, trauma-informed, and shaped by the voices of the women we support.
At Feathers House, our community hub, we run a wide range of activities—from peer support and counselling to creative sessions, drop-ins, toiletries support, and wellbeing groups. We also offer group programmes around domestic abuse recovery, self-esteem, and life skills, all designed to help women feel seen, heard, and empowered.
What We Need
As a small charity, we don’t have in-house IT support, but we need it! We’re seeking friendly, skilled Aviva staff who can offer time and expertise to help us with essential IT tasks such as improving digital systems, setting up templates, streamlining our admin, or offering advice on best practices. With just a few hours of your time, you could make our work more efficient, freeing up our team to focus more on what matters most supporting women.
What Our Volunteer Says:
‘It took me 6 months to feel ready to contact Feathers Futures about becoming a volunteer and it was the best decision I made.'
I contacted Feathers Futures following a very difficult time in my life, which left me feeling numb, shut down, unable to think and feel. I felt I had no purpose in life, and started to have thoughts of how I didn’t want to be here anymore. My sister was becoming increasingly worried about my mental state and her colleague at the hospital had shared a leaflet about Feathers Futures, who suggested they maybe able to help me. This wasn’t what I had planned for my future, I moved to the area a few years ago with my elderly mum to settle here and make a new life for ourselves, we would be closer to other family members to help share the responsibility in caring for mum. Sadly, my mum’s health started to deteriorate quickly and then came Covid and lockdowns, which changed everything. I had become a full-time carer for my mum, isolated in our home, providing for all of mum’s personal and physical health needs, where we felt we had been forgotten about by support services. Due to the restrictions, the family were unable to help as they worked in health care, and when mum went into end-of-life care it was all on me to continue to provide care 24 hours a day, I was exhausted. Mum died at home with me. Afterwards I struggled with feelings of grief, I felt lost, with no purpose and wasn’t in a great place. My sister and family were a big help to me, but they could see I wasn’t the same person anymore. I needed to find something to do, connect with others, find a reason to get up in the morning, that’s when I applied to become a volunteer at Feathers. It appealed to me as it was a women’s charity, I thought that they will understand me and maybe a chance to make new friends. I spent time as volunteer, shadowing staff and volunteers, getting to know how the charity works and supports women in Great Yarmouth. I was added to the volunteer rota and started supporting the kitchen and reception duties. I started to feel useful and needed by others. I signed up to attend Feathers ‘It’s All About Me’ self-esteem and confidence course, this really started to change the way I was thinking and feeling, it helped me feel more optimistic about my future choices. I was encouraged by the staff to take on additional volunteering opportunities, helping with fundraising and community events, which I enjoyed and made me realize how much I’ve missed laughing with others. During my dark period, I was worried that I was losing the ability to process information, like my brain had shut down, but since being at Feathers I’ve completed online training and gained a level 3 accreditation in peer mentoring. Staff were aware of my situation, and I was offered counselling at Feathers, this helped me reflect on the past and understand myself more, giving me the confidence to start making personal goals.
I’m now in a much better place, I feel listened to and heard, when I have a bad day, I know now how to recognize the situation, know it will pass, and I know what I need to do. Feathers is a welcoming, friendly, non-judgmental place, my time as volunteer has given me the opportunity to learn about myself and the chance to be useful and help other women, Feathers has given me my sense of self back.’
Your support behind the scenes can help us go further, reach more women, and grow stronger as a charity. We’d love to welcome you to our community.