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WiCR South’s AGM and First Birthday Celebration We began with an invitation to use the Jam board for any comments, ideas, or questions we’d like to send to the committee, as well as using the Chat function during the meeting.

Then, after the official business of the AGM was completed (including a warm welcome to Ben Walsh, a new steering group member) it was time for the WiCR South First Birthday Celebration.

Achievements in the first year Breathing Space events These are online monthly lunch-hour sessions covering issues of interest or concern to any member of the Community Rail family.

Topics so far:

1) Working in isolation: an open forum discussion on working from home.

2) Mental Health Awareness: how to care for our own and others’ mental health.

3) New to Community Rail? A chat over a cup of Equalitea.

4) The Impossible Dream? Maintaining a healthy work/life balance.

Training slides and handouts from these sessions are on the WiCR website under ‘Events and Training’

 Edna spoke about Sprout Pencils

Q.   What are they?

A.   Pencils with a small packet of seeds attached instead of the usual rubber. So, you use the pencil as normal then plant the seeds. What a good idea!

A fitting metaphor for WiCR’s aims of growth and nurturing, they will be customised, and used to promote the work of the group.

And, now that Edna has challenged us all to recruit new members, we can say they will, of course, be rewarded for joining with the gift of a sprout pencil!

Jo Bridger from Women’s Aid explained the ‘Rail to Refuge’ scheme

Originally an initiative by Southeastern Rail, all TOCs now offer free train  travel to ensure women and their children can leave a violent or abusive situation and get themselves to a Refuge.
This has been even more vitally important during lockdown, as abuse is known to have increased, and the scheme has helped hundreds of families in the last year.
Sadly, 60% of abused women can’t leave home as there isn’t enough refuge accommodation but, if they do manage to secure a place, this scheme enables them to escape

See the Rail to Refuge website for more on this, including information on how to access help and support.

 Looking forward to next year.

More Breathing Space sessions are planned as these have proved popular with members.

Future topics:

1) Risk assessments for events

2) Events management

3) Hosting hybrid events

Future Aims To become ‘the voice of Community Rail:

Increase membership

Focus on networking and mentoring

Work towards Improving inclusivity

Encourage more young people to join Community Rail

Edna closed the meeting with a wish for us to all meet in person soon.

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.

On 4th November, as one of the monthly ‘Breathing Space’ sessions(free to anyone involved in Community Rail)our WiCR South group hosted a Mental Health Awareness training, led by Kelly Burton, Health and Employee Well-being Manager at Avanti West Coast.
 This focussed on how all aspects of our lives can be affected by mental health issues, and explored ways to manage and support our mental well-being.
Details of this event, including all slides, can also be found on our website in the Events and Training section.

Our trainer, Charlotte, set the tone for the training with a deeply personal account of her journey from denial through to finding ways to help herself(and others),then invited us to share our own experiences of challenges to our mental well-being.

HELPING OURSELVES
What are the barriers preventing us getting help?

1) STIGMA
i) Internal stigma
This stops us recognising or admitting we have a problem.
ii) Perceived stigma
This stops us seeking help for fear of being judged or criticised by others.

2) OUR INDIVIDUAL STRESS SIGNATURE
We all have one, and we have to recognise and understand it before we can deal with our mental ill health.
It’s formed when our personal ‘stress container’ fills up with unhelpful strategies for relieving anxiety.
We need to find ways of ‘opening the tap ‘to relieve the pressure.

BLACK DOG
This was an entertaining video with a serious message, portraying mental ill health as a large and ever-present dog affecting all aspects of its owner’s life.
Asking for and accepting help can reduce the dog’s size and weight.
So although it may not go away completely, it will become smaller and easier to live with.

SUPPORTING OTHERS
We can help others by:
i) supporting them ourselves, or
ii) sharing information on sources of help and support

Some do’s and a don’t:
DO
Ask if they want to talk
Give them space and time to express their feelings
Pick up on early warning signs of mental ill health
Give details of how to access support agencies or professional help, if appropriate
DON’T
Offer solutions

And most important of all:
JUST LISTEN!

WINDOW TO THE WORLD
This is a person’s individual frame of reference, formed over their lifetime by a unique set of influences and experiences.
We must view people we’re trying to help through THEIR window.

ROLE PLAY
Ben, an actor, joined us to depict three very different people, all in distress in different ways. Giving us an opportunity to put into practice the listening skills we’d discussed earlier.

AND FINALLY,
Charlotte rounded off the session with descriptions of various mental health disorders, and of organisations offering help, support, and advice.

It had been a fast-paced and very thought-provoking day!

WiCR commissioned a young woman filmmaker, Samantha Dowd, to produce two short videos on the theme of ‘Opportunities’, featuring a range of Community Rail activities and projects and, most importantly, the people who make them happen.

  Our aim was to encourage currently under-represented groups…young people, women of all ages, people from any race or culture…to consider careers or voluntary work in Community Rail.

  In a double celebration we launched the video film at the TfGM offices in Manchester on 21st June 2019 and treated our guests to a buffet lunch and cake to mark our 3rd birthday.

  Then it was over the bridge to the concourse at Piccadilly station where, we screened the film, spoke about what we do and why we do it, and handed out WiCR leaflets (and, of course, more cake!)

  In September that year, in workshops led by Marion and Vicky, the videos were played to everyone attending the Northern Conference in Leeds. Followed by small group discussions and Q and A’s with the WiCR team, this was a perfect way to ‘show and tell’ the diversity of opportunity across Community Rail.