Write for Life!

Aim

Help us to support and empower women in Sussex through our fun and therapeutic writing groups.

We’re Brighton Women’s Centre and we’ve been supporting self-identifying women in Sussex for over 45 years. Our Write for Life group is a project focused on the many benefits of journaling and creative writing for personal wellbeing. Our groups are free and provide a friendly, supportive space for women to explore writing as a way to develop creativity, self-knowledge and confidence.

A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song - Maya Angelou.

Safe, creative spaces empower and nourish our communities. They help to develop confidence and resilience, protecting against isolation by building stronger support networks. We are committed to developing meaningful and accessible, social and creative opportunities for women. We approach every woman with an open mind and an open heart. We never judge anyone, we never turn anyone away, and we build trusting relationships where every woman can be completely herself.

Write for Life has proved very popular and demand for more writing groups at our centres is high. This project relies entirely on volunteers and resources are extremely limited. We want to build on its success by running more groups, reaching out to more women across Sussex - in particular, homeless women, women who are full-time carers and those with mental health issues.

Our project has been selected by Crowdfunder as part of their Projects That Matter campaign who are generously donating £1000 to our project, if we are able to match this with our own funding. We now need to raise £1000 by May 31st in order to receive this money.

• £4 buys a homeless or woman with vulnerabilities her own journal.
• £5 will pay for a daily bus ticket for a volunteer to support our writing groups and drop-in.
• £25 pays for a subsidised space in our crèche, allowing mothers and carers of young children to join in our groups.
• £75 pays for a 2hr creative writing workshop for women attending our homeless drop-ins based in Eastbourne and Worthing.
• £200 will pay for 1 woman to access our Drop-In services for a whole year
• £750 allows us to run a professionally facilitated journaling group, covering 10 weekly 2hr sessions, within in a safe, woman-only space.
• £2000 would enable us to keep our Write for Life project going for a whole year, providing much needed support, constancy and encouragement for women with vulnerabilities.

EVERYONE who donates will be entered into our raffle to win a creative writing bundle worth £50! 

Some reviews from our service-users 

"I most liked the interaction with other women, sharing insights and experiences." 

"The group has a cosy, creative, friendly atmosphere." 

"Choosing the ‘gift’ of a journal felt like I’ve been invited to try rather than buying one and feeling pressured by myself and failing." 

"I liked learning about different styles and being inspired to write." 

"I wish I had found out about this group sooner, so please run it again!"

This project successfully funded on 31st May 2019