What are you most looking forward to today?
"The workshops" - Welfare Assistant Officer, North Tyneside Council
"The Mindfulness workshop" - HR Advisor, NHS
"Hearing personal stories, networking, and meeting people" - Linda Yeo and Maria Rodgers, Funding Officers, The Big Lottery Fund
"Doing something positive for women, and learning new things" - Emma, Volunteer
"After having to take time away from public events to concentrate on improving my mental health and ensuring my safety I was feeling 'out-of-the-loop;' so I'm excited to network and meet new people" - Gail Curry, Artist, Happy Planet Creative Arts
"Supporting Women's Day and having people say 'wow' at our work" - Maureen, Happy Planet Creative Arts *I'd just said 'wow' upon noticing some of the origami*
"Celebrating women's contribution to society and realising that although we still face some barriers, we can change them" - Angela Slater, Equalities and North East Regional Coordinator, Time To Change
The event began with the co-organiser from Launchpad; Marcia Ash, explaining her reasoning behind organising it; "if you want something to happen in North Tyneside for women, you're going to have to do it yourself."
And after stifling a few giggles when late arrivals meant squeaky floorboards during the relaxed silence, it was my turn. Angela Slater, the co-organiser from Time To Change had asked me well in advance if I would get up and just tell people who I was and what I was doing for the event, figuring that was basic, I agreed. But then, I'd been asked to arrive early and so I met a lot of people as they came in and I just had this sense of comfort and confidence. I think it was partly to do with the individuals there, but also a result of my experience and the many work-related changes I've seen in myself (coming in another post). I decided that I was happy to- and actually wanted to- give a longer and more detailed speech. But then, as is customary with mental health events, we were running late. So I told everyone why I'd first began I'm NOT Disordered, how far it'd come and what I was going to be doing at the event. After the event, Marcia told me she'd been impressed at how I kept it brief but managed to still tell everyone so much that it envoked the same feelings in the audience as it would have if I'd told my life story. I think I'm getting better at the whole speeches thing!
To be continued...
Organisations mentioned in this post:
Time to Change: http://www.time-to-change.org.uk
Launchpad: http://launchpadncl.org.uk
North Tyneside Council: http://northtyneside.gov.uk
Launchpad: http://launchpadncl.org.uk
North Tyneside Council: http://northtyneside.gov.uk
NHS: https://www.england.nhs.uk
The Big Lottery Fund: https://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/index
Happy Planet Creative Arts: www.happyplanetcreativearts.org.uk
To watch the VLOG of this event: http://youtu.be/bQzHQOagUvc