Check out our events pages for all our events and look at the following Activities and projects:

The Alice Hawkins Heritage Project

Inspired by Alice Hawkins, Leicester’s very own suffragette, the Alice Hawkins Heritage Project will link our heritage with the future. Girls and women of all ages in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland are invited to explore their family, employment and community history, recording the often little known contributions women have made in the struggle for equal opportunities, freedom and decision making.
Supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Alice Hawkins Heritage Project will build on the Alice Hawkins experience (a century of change and challenge). Project managed by LeicestHERday, it is supported by partners in local colleges, trade union learning, the Museums and Libraries Associations and Local Authorities.

The aim of the project is to create a lasting archive detailing the experiences of local women over the past 100 years, and will give a real insight into the barriers women have faced and, in many cases, managed to overcome. 

The stories collected will enable young people to make connections with their own circumstances and help them to understand the importance of life events and decisions, inspiring and motivating them to understand the rights of citizens of all gender and cultural origin, linking our heritage with the future.

The completed archive – including Alice’s story - will be showcased by the county and city record offices and at the Leicester Mercury and BBC. The stories collected will be recorded in a variety of mediums including dance, drama, radio, video, artwork and oral history.

For more information about how YOU can get involved in the project, contact Lara on 0116 2575615 or email lara@leicestherday.org.uk

Do YOU Have a Story to Tell?

The LeicestHERday Trust are looking for women who would like to be interviewed as part of the Alice Hawkins Heritage Project.  Based on the inspirational story of Leicester’s suffragette Alice Hawkins, the project aims to celebrate and cherish women’s right to vote, right to freedom, right to equal opportunities and to quality of life.

100 years on from Alice Hawkins’ courageous fight for women’s rights, the LeicestHERday Trust are looking to recruit approximately 150 women to discover and document the experiences, achievements, challenge and triumphs of women in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland over the last century.

Do you have an interesting heritage you would like to share with our young people? Have you or anyone in your family had to overcome barriers or obstacles in life? Have you had to fight to achieve equality? Could other people be inspired by your struggles? 

Your story could be made into a lasting record for generations to come!

We are looking for people from all walks of life to share their stories with a young volunteer. The stories collected will enable young people to make connections with their own circumstances and help them to understand the importance of life events and decisions, inspiring and motivating them to understand the rights of citizens of all gender and cultural origin, linking our heritage with the future.

The completed archive – including Alice’s story - will be showcased by the county and city record offices and at the Leicester Mercury and BBC. The stories collected will be recorded in a variety of mediums including dance, drama, radio, video, artwork and oral history. If you would like to share your story but wish to remain anonymous, that’s fine too.

Whatever your story, we would love to hear from you. If you are interested in taking part, please contact Lara Thomas on 0116 2575615 or email lara@leicestherday.org.uk

There's an Alice Hawkins in every one of us, let us help you find her!

Download more information by clicking HERE.

Interested in taking part? Why not get in touch and tell us a little bit about YOUR story by clicking HERE.

Young Volunteers Needed!!!

 
• Are YOU a young person looking for a new and different challenge?
• Do YOU want the opportunity to gain some hands-on learning experience?
• Could YOU donate some time for a brand new and unique community project?

If the answer to these questions is YES, we would love to meet you!

We’re looking for 50 young, motivated individuals to contribute to a brand new and exciting project designed to give young people an insight to the lives and experiences of women in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.

Based on the story of Alice Hawkins, a leading Leicester suffragette, and supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund, volunteers will have the chance to interview a unique and diverse range of women from all over the city and county. 
The aim of the project is to create a lasting archive detailing the experiences of local women over the past 100 years, and will give a real insight into the barriers women have faced and, in many cases, managed to overcome. 

It’s a fantastic opportunity to learn about the amazing stories and people that live just around the corner and who are waiting to be discovered by YOU.

The stories collected will be recorded in a variety of mediums including dance, drama, radio, video, artwork and oral history. There will be the opportunity to learn a huge variety of skills in a range of areas such as radio and oral history interviewing, web design, and community journalism. 

It is also an excellent opportunity to gain practical, hands-on experience and develop your communication and project management skills.

To find out more about the project and how YOU can take part, simply contact Lara Thomas at the LeicestHERday office on 0116 2575615 or email lara@leicestherday.org.uk

Want to know more? Learn more by clicking HERE.
Interested in taking part? CLICK HERE! 

Alice Hawkins

The Annual Conference 2007 theme, and our new focus project is based on a legacy from Alice Hawkins, Leicester’s first suffragette.  She founded the Leicester branch of the Women’s Social and Political Union (1907) and worked with colleagues around the country to gain the Vote for Women. Her grandchildren, great grandchildren and great-great grandchildren are working with LeicestHERday Trust taking Alice’s story into schools, museums, culturally diverse communities, use her legacy to understand and overcome the barriers that exist for women today.  We will search for other descendents of our region’s suffragettes to share their stories orally and anecdotally with others.  We will illustrate that the women of the East Midlands were instrumental in the first for women’s suffrage and Leicester, Nottingham and Northampton were hotbeds in the fight for the vote. Married with this theme is the 200 year celebration of Emancipation of Slavery and the 35 year celebration of the first major influx of refugees into Leicester from the Ugandan Asian community. 

Tomorrow’s Women Project  

This is a training and nurturing projected intended to increase women’s potential as decision-makers.  We are planning this project with Common Purpose and regional participants.  We are at initial stages and have identified over forty women in our sub region who already hold decision-making roles in business, government and the voluntary sector.  They have agreed to act as mentors.  A mapping project to identify the work areas is one of our first goals. We will use our own website and the LeicesterShire network platform for this initiative.  At the 2007 Conference, we held a discussion group on Tomorrow’s Women led by Common Purpose.  A report will shortly by on the website.

Gender in the Local Labour Market (GELLM)

This project was recently completed following a three-year research initiative with partners including Sheffield Hallam University and Leicester City Council. Three reports resulted in Leicester and another 30 reports from ten other participating cities across the UK.   The reports for Leicester are:

 - Ethnic minority women and access to the labour market
 - Women’s career development in the local authority sector
 - Working below potential- Women and part-time work

The reports conclude that:

 - Women’s aspirations far outweigh their current expectations
 - BME women have a ‘concrete’ ceiling between them and improving their careers and their lives
 - Women work at below their capacity NOT by choice and
 - Women in management need better routes of progression

Our mission using our networks and partners is to make sure that the reports do not remain on shelves.  We must act to change the culture holding women back.  The under-used resource of women in our local labour market is an economic regeneration issue.  We are actively promoting the compact and have developed and prepared an action plan to take to local government, business and providers.

Opening Doors events (formerly called Mini LeicestHERdays & Women’s Days)

These events are held in areas of deprivation and isolation across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.  We target women in these areas (men also attend) to discover a world of opportunities including access to

Jobs

Training and education

Gaining new skills and qualifications

Career change advice

Lifestyle improvement

Childcare services

Contact signpost and links to providers and agencies

Opportunities and services

We run twenty of these a year in neighbourhoods where hard-to-reach women can cross familiar thresholds and open up their horizons to enterprise and training.  We have  been awarded a Microsoft Community Award and have five computer notebooks to give these women their first taste of IT to encourage them to sign up for our providers’ access to IT courses and progress through to accredited courses.

Training and e-training

The LeicestHERday Trust runs gender training in association with the Equality & Diversity Support Services and other trainers in race, faith, sexual persuasion, age and disability.  We are continuing our Social enterprise development and planning to run our own training sessions and activities in 2007/2008 for government, business and voluntary sector clients.  These workshops include gender training, gender legal responsibilities, work/life balance and management/ enterprise activities.  In addition, a key part of our training will be for isolated and disadvantaged women in building confidence and raising aspirations.  The women themselves at our Opening Doors events have overwhelmingly identified this training need.

Opening Doors to Science Engineering & Technology  

An annual event for young women. Targeted at female students Key stages 9 to 11, Further Education and University students to encourage them to break the barriers to non-stereotypical careers.  Held in conjunction with the University of Leicester, organised by LeicestHERday Trust and funded by the UK Resource Centre.  This year’s event was oversubscribed and planning is now underway for 2008.

Mind Your Own Business Events

We have held five of these events at venues such as Aylestone Leisure Centre, Highfields Community Centre, Brite Centre Braunstone and Tilda Hall at the Lohana Centre.  We included MYOB as a discussion group at the 2007 Conference.  We will be holding up to five more of these events in 2007 with the purpose of encouraging women to start up business.  We feature top tips in marketing, finance, business planning, management, tax tips and business development.  We use role models to share their experiences with the participants.  We average 100 participants at each event and the feedback and progression has been positive.  Our partners include East Midlands Development Agency, East Midlands Business, Alliance & Leicester, De Montfort University Business Faculty, the NRF Cross Cutting Small Grants programme through Leicester Partnership and VAL, training providders, Prince’s Trust, HM Customs and Excise, and more.

We will shortly be announcing our next MYOB events which will include activities in Ibstock, Greater Humberstone, New Parks and more

Fit & Fun Events  

Events aimed at promoting healthy living, nutrition, fitness and work/life/community balance.   These events are held in conjunction with health and fitness partners and aimed at disadvantaged and isolated women and their families.  We are planning two more events for 2007 with emphasis on enabling women in isolated and disadvantaged areas.  Our partners in this endeavour include a range of fitness and nutrition companies including Abbey Sports, Burleigh Springs (Loughborough).

Celebration Garden Party

An event to recognise women and girls who have made a difference to their homes, businesses, schools and community.  Supported by the Leicester Mercury who print nomination forms in paper, this now annual event is a chance to recognise the contributions made to making a difference in Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland.  500 attended in 2006 and received awards. See events page for past and present Celebration events.

Rajkot Twinning - Letserday

This is a twin city project between the women of LeicestHERday and the women of Rajkot in India. See more about this on this website- listed on Activities.