Reflections on the YWCA of Great Britain Conference in Doncaster
YWCA Scotland is a member of YWCA of Great Britain, which is an “umbrella” organisation for all YWCA groups within England, Scotland and Wales and is a member of YWCA at World Level. Rachael O’Byrne, Development Worker for YWCA Scotland writes about her experience of attending the YWCA of Great Britain conference in November 2010.
The conference was the perfect opportunity for us to find out how we in Scotland fit into the bigger YWCA picture!
The conference brought together YWCA Scotland, YWCA England and Wales (now known as Platform 51), the independent YWCAs including Glasgow and Sheffield and joint YMCA/YWCA groups, represented by Glenrothes. We were also joined by Keuna Kiaho from World YWCA office.
We arrived in Doncaster on the Friday night and took part in ‘getting to know each other’ sessions, then learned about YWCA of GB. On Saturday, we took part in workshops which were based o the three themes of YWCA World Council 2011 – Violence Against Women, HIV/AIDS and Sexual Health & Reproductive Rights. The workshops allowed us to gain information on each theme, and debate, discuss and share ideas.
There was “networking” time on Saturday where we learned about all the different work that YWCAs do across Britain, featuring presentations by Livingston volunteers Ashley Geggan and Avis McDonald. We then took part in the YWCA of GB business meeting which included the constitutional review.
I think I speak on behalf of everyone when I say we met some great people, heard some really inspiring stories and it was overall a very useful, interesting and worthwhile weekend.
I will be amongst the YWCA of Great Britain delegation attending YWCA World Council and Women’s Summit in Zurich in July 2011, so I stayed an extra night to take part in the first of three training weekends to prepare for the event. The delegation is made up of five staff and three young women from YWCAs across Britain and this was our first meeting together. It’s really exciting to be part of the delegation.
I would also like to say thanks to Lillian from Doncaster YWCA and her staff who did a great job looking after us the whole weekend.
