HELLO AND WELCOME TO LEICESTHERDAY CHRISTMAS NEWSLETTER

Wrap up warm, put another log on the fire and enjoy the Christmas Edition of the LeicestHERday Trust newsletter.
As everyone is enjoying the snow, getting in the festive spirit, and wondering whether this year will be a white Christmas, the team at LeicestHERday has been as busy as ever with another Mind your Own Business event and the conclusion of the Alice Hawkins Project; therefore this newsletter will be another informative and exciting edition.

At this time of joy there come a little sadness too.

Three invaluable members of the LeicestHERday staff are leaving us after Christmas. Amie, Angela and Shradha.

Sadly Amie is leaving the Trust to return to Nottingham Trent University to pursue a career in teaching.

Angela will be finishing with the Trust at Christmas to spend more quality time with her family and enjoy her hobby of patchwork quilting.

Shradha is leaving to spend more time on building up her own business in Image Consultancy.

We wish them all the best of luck in their futures.

Below are a few Christmas quotes to get you in the festive spirit.

"The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree is the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other." Burton Hillis

"From home to home, and heart to heart, from one place to another. The warmth and joy of Christmas brings us closer to each other." Emily Matthews

"The joy of brightening other lives, bearing each others' burdens, easing other's loads and supplanting empty hearts and lives with generous gifts becomes for us the magic of Christmas." WC Jones

I hope you will enjoy reading through this festive issue and as always please feel free to forward it on to your family, friends and colleagues and keep checking out our website http://www.leicestherday.org.uk/ for all the latest news from the LeicestHERday Trust.

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year

The LeicestHERday Team

EVENTS UPDATE

MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS– EYRES MONSELL

Wednesday 2nd December, 2009
Eyres Monsell Community Centre

LeicestHERday’s final Mind Your Own Business event of 2009 was a great success! The Mind Your Own Business events are funded by ERDF and supported by Leicester Business Women. The day kicked off with Dawn Lawrence from Leicester Business Women giving a motivational talk to the ladies, getting them all fired up and ready to take that big step into self employment. This was followed by Sandra Pollock, of Open Mind Coaching’s, workshop themed around Work-Life Balance. Many of the ladies felt this was very useful with the stresses of modern day life, motherhood and running your own business requiring careful management in order to lead a happy and fulfilled life.

Maureen Milgram Forrest, the founder of the LeicestHERday Trust gave an inspiring talk about how to networking successfully. This included a very useful set of Top Ten Networking Tips that the delegates could take away and utilise in their future careers. This concept of effective networking was then used during the hour long lunch break where delegates and exhibitors exchanged knowledge, tips and contacts.

Sandy Leong, of Sahara Consultancy, kicked off the afternoon with a motivational talk about creating your own Business Plan. Sandy made this very personal, introducing the concept of allowing your plan to reflect not only what your business is and where its going, but also who you are as a person. This was followed by James Macfarlane and Antony Le, of Macfarlane and Le Consultancy, who introduced the idea of online marketing and how to maximise your customer base online.

Finally the our Mind Your Own Business event finished with another half hour of workshop activities, again based around Work-Life Balance, lead by Sandra Pollock. With the official close by Dawn Lawrence, of Leicester Business Women.

If you are interested in attending any of our events, please go on to the website to see what we have coming up! The next Mind Your Own Business will be held in Beaumont Leys, on Friday 15th January at the Tudor Centre.

2010 ANNUAL LAUNCH

Friday 22nd January, 2010
The National Space Centre
11am – 1pm

We are proud to announce that the LeicestHERday Trust’s Annual Conference will be taking place on the 22nd January. The theme for 2010 is: ‘The 4 E’s: Enterprise, Employment, Equality and Environment’ each of which will be discussed at our launch. All our members, partners, delegates and any other women from Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland to join us.

The launch is an opportunity for you to network with like minded women, meet the staff and most importantly, help influence the LeicestHERday Trust’s path for 2010. Discussion groups will take place, with the outcomes helping to change policies. So if you would like to know more about us, or would like to change the future for the women of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland for the better, please sign up following the link on the website.

We look forward to seeing you there!

ALICE HAWKINS PROJECT - UPDATE

We have nearly hit our target of 150 women’s story and currently have a total of 145 stories, of which 8 have been filmed. We hope to launch our Oral History Project website at the beginning of January 2010, designed and created by Web4Design, which will show clips of interviews filmed as part of the project and showcase the women involved in the project.

As we come to the end of the project, we can reflect on the importance of the project and how beneficial it will be to younger generations in the future.

Over a year and half ago we began work on this project, in the aim to recruit 42 volunteers and have them interview 150 women about their life stories and experiences.

It has been an incredible journey and we are pleased to say we recruited over 50 volunteers to take part in the project, ranging from University students to City of Leicester College and Gateway College students.

As a thank you, we are holding a ‘Post Alice Hawkins Project Celebration’ on the 5th February 2010 at Phoenix Square in Leicester, where we will be presenting all our volunteers with awards. We will also be celebrating the lives of the women who have been so generous in letting us recording their experiences and achievements.

CONNEXIONS - POST ALICE HAWKINS PROJECT

As we start the follow-on project funded by Connexions Leicester, we have begun to recruit 30 volunteers aged 13-19 who are not in education, employment or training, from disadvantaged areas or under achieving students. We have received funding from the Space Centre to send all 30 volunteers we recruit to the Space Centre and send them on a Challenger Mission, which will develop their team building skills, enhance their communication skills and give them the opportunity to get to know one another before they embark on creating exhibitions from the Alice Hawkins Project to take around schools, community centres. The volunteers will showcase their work and exhibition at the Post Alice Hawkins Celebration and we hope they will be inspired by the volunteers who took part in the project.

If you know of any young volunteers that would benefit from learning skills in media and marketing, presentation and communication, events planning or needs some inspiration for their future career decisions, then please call Jenni on 0116 2575615 or email jenni@leicestherday.org.uk

PHIL BROWN DONATES BOOK PROFITS

Phil Brown, one of LeicestHERday's Trustees, has generiously announced that he is to donate all the profits from his forthcoming book, Time Crystal Volume 1, to the LeicestHERday Trust.

Written under the pseudonym of Wyken Seagrave, Time Crystal is about disaster at CERN in Switzerland and two men are absorbed by a black hole. Moments later time stops everywhere in the Universe except near fragments of mysterious blue crystal. Each one is surrounded by a bubble of time. Hold a crystal and you’re alive. Without it you’re frozen in time.

Fourteen-year-old Catriona O’Brien is visiting CERN when the disaster happens. She is given a crystal and hears one of the two absorbed men saying that if she can collect all the crystal fragments and bring them down something called the ‘Time Tunnel’ then he can restart time.

So begins an adventure that will take Catriona back through the history of the Universe to the Big Bang and beyond!

To make sure you will receive your copy as soon after Crystal Day (5 April 2010) as possible you can pre-order your copy now. Visit http://www.timecrystal.co.uk/vol1

Time Crystal is also available as a free podcast.

For more information on Time Crystal visit the website http://www.timecrystal.co.uk

SPOTLIGHT ON KAMALANGI COSTELLO

My name is Kamalangi and I teach EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) and also conduct workshops around Leicester, Nottingham and Birmingham.

EFT is a self-applied technique or self-help protocol that can be quickly and easily learnt by anyone.
It is a tapping technique that relieves symptoms which causes the anxiety.
It is one of the new groundbreaking Energy Psychology Techniques that have emerged in the last decade and are now taking the world by storm.

Like many very successful techniques, it works via the body energy systems. This technique is gentle, helps you to cope better with life stresses with renewed interest and energy. The regular practice of EFT is a HUGE stress reliever and the results are long lasting.

I put emphasis on my workshops because I believe it is one of my foremost assets, combined with other factors.
The knowledge and skills i have acquired are from the most current sources, using the latest technology.
I have practical hands on experience and appreciable experience in the EFT world.

The workshops conducted by LeicesterHERday and Leicester Business Women have been greatly valuable and informative. I felt like the ’seeds’ of my business were being planted and now it is time to watch my garden grow.  I felt that I was truly moving forward and I already have 2 workshops which I am running in 2010.
I feel that it is what we all need to plug into the energy source of our business and be electrified. All these experiences have given me enormous self-confidence and motivation.

Sometimes we go through periods of frustration and anxiety in starting our businesses, yet I have learned through these workshops that we can continue doing something everyday for our business to progress. We need to be like the plants during the winter season, though it appears to be dead it is in fact alive and thriving sending down its roots to emerge brilliantly in full bloom in the spring.

My vision for the next 3 years for my business is that I will be a proficient EFT/NLP Practitioner and Coach, skilled, dynamic and authentic. I hope to be conducting workshops and events nationally and internationally.

Kamalangi's two workshops early next year are.

23rd January 2010 is an EFT Self-Help workshop.
10th March 2010 is Kickstart Your Metabolism.

If you would like to attend on of these great workshops please contact Kamalangi to book your place.

Email: kamalangi@findingmybalance.biz
http://www.findingmybalance.biz/
Tel: 0116-2238041/07966832499

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PYCA

The LeicestHERday Trust is the women’s sector lead for the Leicester Partnership.

As part of our responsibility for organisations in Leicester, we are proud to call the Pakistani Youth & Community Association a partner and work with them on a range of activities that support women (and men) achieve better skills, jobs and work experience to name a few joined up experiences.  We have had many PYCA beneficiaries as trainees in our activities and we have taken our Opening Doors activities to PYCA.  They are always at our conferences and contribute in consultations and steering committees that change culture and lives for women of all faiths.

Pakistan Youth & Community Association (PYCA) was formed in 1993, as an association supporting the educational, social, cultural and recreational needs of the Pakistani and the other communities in Leicester. They were able to open Pakistan Centre in December 1997 with a support grant from Leicester City Council.

PYCA is situated at 58 Earl Howe Street, in the centre of Highfields in Leicester, an inner city area with a largely Asian community. The Centre provides leisure, advice and support services to the Pakistani people in Leicester and to the greater local community in Leicester and surrounding areas. Activates include youth activities, an elderly drop-in session (called Daikh Bhal), educational and language classes, women and girls activities, advice and support sessions, community conferences and seminars, social events, health advice and information and keep fit sessions. All these activities are offered in a space which is sympathetic to the needs of our community, and a sheltered environment that particularly young people and women can feel comfortable in.

HISTORIC DAY FOR CITY OF LEICESTER AS LADY FREEMAN SWORN IN

A little piece of Leicester history was made at the Town Hall this weekend.
For the first time in more than 800 years, a city that prides itself on equality and fairness finally allowed a woman to become a Hereditary Lady Freeman of Leicester.
In fact, not just one woman, but 15 of them.

Men were first made Freemen of the city of Leicester back in 1196, during the reign of Richard the Lionheart.
Tradesmen and merchants were given the honour – and the privileges that came with it, such as freedom from city tolls – as a civic gratitude for helping to run the city.
They were allowed to pass the title on – but only to their sons.
If they only had daughters, the title died with them.

Susan Taylor has freemen links to both her mother and father's side of the family. Her brother, Maurice Hill, is a Freeman – and former chairman of Leicester Freeman's Board of Deputies.

On Saturday, clutching her oath, she said: "I'm delighted, absolutely elated."
"I have been trying for nearly 30 years to change this, so today is a big day for me.
"I know it's just a piece of paper.

Today, the only privilege of being a hereditary freeman of Leicester is the chance to live rent-free in a Freeman's bungalow off Aylestone Road, on land owned and maintained by the Freemen.

But many daughters have felt aggrieved they have had to miss out on the title – and the history that goes with it – simply because of their gender.

The formal 50-minute ceremony took place at the Town Hall, attended by Lord Mayor Roger Blackmore and councillors Mary Draycott and Manjula Sood, who both campaigned for women to be allowed to take up the honour.

WOMEN'S HOST FOR LEICESTER PARTNERSHIP

Update news about the Women’s Reps, Steering Committee and what this project means for women’s organisations through the City of Leicester.  If your organisation is a bonafide voluntary sector women’s organisation, please read here and participate!

The steering committee is composed of
Maureen Milgram Forrest, LeicestHERday Trust, Chair
Sara Davies, Turning Point, Women’s representative on the Leicester Partnership
Sudha Vemuri, Shama Women’s and Girls’ Association
Aisha Ali, Pakistani Youth & Community Association
Jawaahir Daahir, Somali Development Services
Mega Arumugum, Domestic Violence Response Project
Meena Kumari, Safe Project, Foundation Housing
Pamela Campbell, Akwaaba Ayeh

Our liaison from Leicester City Council include Carine Cardoza and Andrew Tovell

Our major event for Women’s Networking will be an opportunity for women’s groups to participate in an issues day to discuss what women need, what women want and to come out of the day with results that we can work on as the Women’s Host organisation with the Leicester Partnership

The date: Monday 8 March 2010   (International Women’s Day for the best message)
The venue: Peepul Centre
The time: 10am to 2.30pm

We are preparing the programme early in the New Year.  If you wish to participate in the planning and or join us on the Steering Committee, contact maureen@mftrust.org.uk   Remember, you need to be a women’s organisation, a voluntary group.  The day will be open to all women. 
If you wish to input into the programme, send your ideas to aisha_al1@yahoo.co.uk

HAVE YOU BEEN WOWED BY A WOMAN?

Designed to recognise the commitment and contribution made by business women to the East Midlands economy, the Women of Worth Awards 2010 will spotlight three outstanding business women in key business categories.

These Awards are designed to recognise the achievement of many of our entrepreneurial and forward-thinking women. Currently, women are half as likely to be involved in entrepreneurship as men, so it is vital that we recognise the business achievements of those who have taken the step into the market place, and hopefully encourage others to do the same. 

The three categories are as follows:

Small Business of the Year
The company must employ 10 people or less, be sustainable and made giant strides in the quest to achieve its goals

Most Innovative Business
For the business that can demonstrate entrepreneurial flair, capitalising on an original and attractive product/service

Business Woman of the Year
For a woman who has achieved outstanding success with her business. An inspiration to up-and-coming businesswomen

You can nominate a colleague, a friend or client or indeed nominate yourself. We are ensuring that the entry process is kept simple and easy to complete, deadline for entries is Friday 15th January 2010. The winners will be awarded at the East Midlands Women in Business Conference, Thursday 4th March 2010.

The prestigious annual East Midlands Women of Worth Awards will close the 2010 East Midlands Women in Business Conference  on Thursday 4th March 2010 at Pride Park Stadium, Derby. – your nominations could be decisive!

Nominations for the awards are now being taken. Why not nominate a colleague, friend or client or yourself? The deadline for entries is Friday 15th January 2010.

Photo of last year’s winners, nominees and presenters (missing from the photo: Woman of the Year, Hilary Devey)