On the 8th of March we at WiCR hosted a session at the DFT Conference to celebrate our achievements over the last twelve months.
A video made by a talented young filmmaker, Samantha Dowd, began with a tribute, accompanied by a ‘Happy Birthday’ soundtrack, to mark the work of WiCR South during their first year.
Meet the Members
In short video selfies made on our phones, we introduced ourselves while holding a prop(for one of us it was an oil can, for another a football shirt…)to ‘show and tell’ what we each bring to Community Rail.
Our New Support Officer
Jayne McLoughlin joined us in January in a new post funded by London Northwestern Railway. She hit the ground running, promoting WiCR on social media platforms as well as developing the website with funding from Northern Rail’s Seedcorn scheme.
A Virtual Safe Space
Breathing Space sessions, monthly discussions hosted by WiCR South on topics of interest or concern to anyone in Community Rail, have proved very popular, and a further series is planned.
Details on the first series are on the WiCR website under ‘Events and Training’
Show Racism the Red Card
Unable to attend events during the past year in support of this charity, we sent a donation, and a collage was made of photos of us wearing our ‘Show Racism the Red Card’ badges on the 16th of October
Mental Health Training Day
WiCR hosted a Mental Health First Aid Training session on how we can help and support ourselves and others to achieve mental well-being.
More details on the WiCR website, including very appreciative comments from participants.
The Next 5 Years
Plans include:
Securing funding for a permanent Support Officer Increasing our membership in this and other countries Developing the mentoring service
Throughout the whole day the video was played at the conference, and our story was shared on social media and featured by Unison, the Trade Union, during their celebrations on IWD.
Quiz
Vicky hosted a quiz testing people’s knowledge of 5 ‘Inspirational Women’.
Answers on Chat revealed that Marie Curie was easy to guess Mae Jemison a little harder (she was the first black woman to travel into space)
Just enough time was left for a brief Q and A, then over 80 people stayed to chat in breakout rooms, many giving positive feedback on the session.
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