An exhibition detailing the life and work of our founder, Jessie Boucherett, will be held at St Thomas Church, North Willingham  near Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, between Saturday 23 July and Sunday 7 August 2016.

Organised by the Lincolnshire branch of the Fawcett Society the exhibition is being held to commemorate its 150^th Anniversary. The Society grew from the 1866 Committee that prepared a petition to Parliament asking for women to have the right to vote. It is today the UK’s leading Charity for women’s equality and rights, at home, in public and at work. 

Jessie Boucherett was born in North Willingham and maintained links with the village, the nearby town of Market Rasen and the county, throughout her life.  She is buried with other members of her family in St Thomas’s churchyard. The exhibition will cover Jessie’s life and work in various causes.  Jessie continued to support the campaign for the vote, to ensure women were treated fairly in legislation and also to expand their employment opportunities and to provide practical training and other assistance to women from all parts of society.

The exhibition is open between 10.00am – 4.00pm and tea and refreshments are available in nearby Willingham Fayre Tea Room.

Lady Appleyard (left)
Grace Watts (centre)
Joanna Murray (right)

On 8 June Futures for Women held a networking event for members, supporters and ex-grantees at Pricewaterhouse Coopers in London.  Our thanks go to Emma Whalley-Hands for arranging the meeting room.

Two ex-grantees came along to update the members on their career so far.  Victoria Lenzoi Lee works as a Built Environment Expert with Design Council Cabe on housing and office projects that promote a better quality of life.  In October 2016 Victoria will be starting a postgraduate degree in Sustainable Urban Development at the University of Oxford. Her long term aim is to work with developing countries in planning their built environments.  Victoria has started a crowd-funding page in order to raise funds for her degree and details can be viewed here.
Grace Watts qualified as a Music Therapist in 2011.  She is currently taking part in a trial which uses music therapy with children with Autism.  Grace also works with people suffering from dementia and has seen the profound effect that music can have on the general daily well-being of a variety of patients with mental health issues.

President Lady Appleyard thanked Victoria and Grace for taking the time out of their busy schedules to speak to our members.

The Pavilion Suite at the offices of Pricewaterhouse Coopers in Southwark, London was the stunning location for the Futures for Women AGM in June 2016.  Our thanks go to Emma Whalley-Hands who arranged the room for us.

At the end of the AGM members present bade farewell to Professor Janet Dine who has resigned from the Board of Trustees due to pressure of work.   Janet is currently working on a sustainability project and visits Oslo in Norway on a regular basis.  Chairman Joanna Murray (left) and President Lady Appleyard (right) helped Janet cut her farewell cake.

Our thanks go to Professor Janet Dine for her support for Futures for Women.

The 2016 Futures for Women AGM is being held on Wednesday 8 June at a new prestigious location of the Pavilion Suite at Pricewaterhouse Coopers, which overlooks the Thames near to HMS Belfast.  We would like to express our thanks to Emma Whalley-Hands who has kindly made the arrangements for us.

Prior to the AGM at 12 noon we will be holding a networking event with women who have benefited from an interest-free loan from Futures for Women and who are now progressing their career.  Trustee Amy McVittie will deliver a presentation on Futures for Women statistics which demonstrate how many women have been awarded an interest-free loan and the range of courses they have studied.

The formal AGM will follow the networking event and during the meeting we will be saying farewell to Trustee Professor Janet Dine who is resigning from the Board due to work commitments overseas.

We would be delighted to welcome anyone who is interested in our work at our networking event and AGM.  If you would like to attend please contact our Secretary on futuresforwomen@btinternet.com

The Charity Commission, the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales, is urging charity donors to remain vigilant to the continuing threat of mandate fraud and the changing tactics that fraudsters are using to target charities and their donors.

Mandate fraud occurs when the fraudster tricks a donor into changing bank account details, in order to divert legitimate payments intended for a genuine charity to bank accounts instead controlled by fraudsters. This often involves the fraudster impersonating an organisation representative, either by email, direct mail or telephone communication. The fraudster may also use headed paper and/or the company logo to lend credibility and to gain the charity’s trust.

If you have a standing order established in order to make regular donations to a charity please be on your guard if you are asked to change the bank account details and verify the request before taking action.

A biography of a remarkable woman who for many years was President of the Society for Promoting the Training of Women (now Futures for Women) has just been published.  ‘Queen of Spies’ is a biography of Baroness Daphne Park, who was one of the first women to undertake a fully operational role in the Secret Intelligence Service culminating in her appointment as Controller Western Hemisphere in 1975, the highest post ever occupied by a woman.  After retiring from SIS in 1979 Baroness P ark was elected Principal of Somerville College, Oxford, where she remained until 1989.  BaronessPark died in 2010 aged 88 years. 

“Queen of Spies” is written by Paddy Hayes and published by Duckworth Overlook.

Raising the necessary funding to cover the costs of undertaking a post-graduate degree is always going to be challenging but one of our grantees hasn’t let that put her off.  Dani was offered a place to study an MA in Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies but had a shortfall in funding.  Following a successful application to Futures for Women and two other charitable trusts Dani then established a sponsorship page on a “crowd funding” website where members of the public can donate to your cause.  As the donations started to arrive Dani decided to organize a raffle and after speaking to companies local to her home she managed to secure over 25 prizes such as gift vouchers and original paintings and sculptures from well known artists.    Dani has now raised over £4450 from various sources and has already covered the tuition fees for her first year.    We think this result is a fantastic achievement and are sure that such innovative thinking and boundless energy will put Dani in good stead whilst studying at University and during her eventual career in the heritage sector.

Original painting donated as a raffle prize by Keith Nash

After 35 years service as a Trustee of Futures for Women Dr Carolyn Boulter decided to resign from the Board at our AGM in June 2015.  Members and ex-grantees who were present at the meeting joined Carolyn in cutting a cake and sharing a cup of tea.

Carolyn is a former Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of FfW.  She has been instrumental in introducing new, more efficient, administrative processes for the charity and also instigated the annual Development Day meeting which gives Trustees an opportunity to discuss a specific issue.  Our lunch at Englefield House in March 2015 was masterminded by Carolyn who worked tirelessly to promote the event to her contacts in her local community.

Carolyn will remain busy in her “retirement” as she is involved with many other charities and organisations local to Theale.

Carolyn (centre) cuts her cake