Greetings from Womenspace
Welcome to our July 2024 Newsletter
A special welcome to our new members and thankyou to our renewed members – Kay, Jo, Christine, Bernadette, Kylie, Josy, Rachel, Evina, Belinda, Wendy, Cheryl, Margaret, Lisa, Deborah, Jenni, Isobel, Antoinette, Anna and Margot.
Welcome to Claire Harrison and her weekly offering of Chair Yoga. Claire is an experienced teacher, able to satisfy all ages and abilities. Her class begins with a short relaxation followed by a flow yoga session, that gives a full body workout without getting down on the floor. Chair yoga uses a vinyasa flow – employing breath and movement to open up and strengthen the whole body.
Stretch, breathe, relax – every Monday 5.30 – 6.30pm. All ages and abilities are welcome!
Another welcome is to Amara Seabrook, our new Office Coordinator. Amara joined us after Georgia Woods announced to become a full-time university student. Thank you, Georgia for your contribution to Womenspace – enjoy being a student again. We are pleased you are still with us – as a volunteer as well as one of the facilitators of the EmpowHer Program.
EmpowHer Program
Last year, when reflecting on our past, we agreed to give ourselves a year of searching for new opportunities for Womenspace’s next project. Part of that search is the current EmpowHer Program, supported by Investing in Queensland women grant program (Office for Women | Department of Health). Weekly talks, yoga and creative expression workshops focussed on empowerment of women by enhancing their understanding of wellbeing, introducing tools to reduce stress, boost confidence, foster creativity, establish connections, and cultivate a sense of belonging within our community. While the feedback on Round 1 & 2 was very positive, the number of participants was lower than expected, therefore we are extending the program into July and August under the banner Creative Sundays at Womenspace
Our monthly/weekly activities
The first of the Creative Sundays at Womenspace was facilitated by Womenspace and Sandgate Art Society Member Lisa Elms.
Topic was ‘A Bunch of flowers’ – we created a small painting using acrylic paints on A4 sized acrylic paper. talked about composition, shapes, colour, tone and while enjoying being together, we fostered an optimistic attitude and creative growth, build problem solving skills, enhanced critical thinking, sharpened the mind through conceptual visualization and implementation of same, improved memory, strengthened fine motor skills, enhances resilience and decision making, told stories that gave us an opportunity to express feelings and emotions – surrounded by music and beautifully prepared space by Lisa with the flowers from her garden.
Sounds like a perfect Sunday morning? – well, for those three hours (10am-1pm) we had together, it was.
Sunday's Coming Up:
14th July: Karen Roberts
21st July: Donna Hawkins
28th July: Einbunpin Festival
4th August: Leesa Baker
11 &18 August: Marilyn Cass
Many of you know Karen and Leesa. Donna and Marilyn were introduced to Womenspace by Jan Hughes who facilitated their powerful presentation at the May edition of Women Weaving Stories.
Bringing these artists into Womenspace we aim to give you a taste of various art/artisan creative expressions to consider following in future offerings to enhance your and Womenspace’s wellbeing and sustainability. While the current environment we live in could lead easily to emotional withdrawal, we know that non-judgemental, playful, creative activity in safe place creates positive connections.
On 21st July Donna will present INTUITIVE COLLAGE leading us to allowing our imagination to play, to hear the guidance from our intuition.
To follow the Womenspace tradition of many years, we will be part of the annual Einbunpin Festival on the last Sunday of July.
Members of Womenspace invested a lot of time in creating materials for the festival – paper craft items including journals, booklets, tags, bookmarks; clown – a children’s toy (made with help from Sandgate Men’s Shed); costume jewellery will be also available.
We hope to see many members of Womenspace there, as well as sharing information about our programs with those who don’t know much about us.
Towards the end of the day, we will draw the winner of the Winter Warmer Hamper – a big fundraising effort led by Diann Squire, supported by many members of Womenspace. Big thank-you to all!
In March we began the 4th year of the Women Weaving Stories gatherings.
At the same time as this newsletter is being distributed, we welcome our 40th presenter – Maggie Shambrook from the Housing Older Women Movement. Maggie invites us to join her to share stories of home and feel our kinship with other women, to consider what home means to us, and what it has come to mean for our nation.
The presenter for our August WWS on Friday 9th August will be Bisma Asif, Candidate for Sandgate. This young politician will share with us how events, people, environments, and traditions made her the woman she is today.
Frankie Armstrong’s visit was mentioned in our last Newsletter – here are a few photos from the Rewilding the Voice workshop and concert performance with Sarah Hopkins and Ann Bermingham. It was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate voice and re-unite with people we haven’t seen for a long time, including Cathy Brelza, the artist, who initiated the creation of the Womenspace Spiral 25 years ago! What a blast to meet her at the conclusion of Frankie’s concert.
Our Newsletters used to record our activities, documenting what we are up to. These days all of that is recorded in Events on our website and posts on the Facebook – the Newsletter, distributed to 1,200+ on our mailing list, is really a sum-up for those who are not following social media. If you are one of those wise people and you have a moment, please send us a note, especially if we haven’t seen you for a while. We would like to hear from you.
ALL DONATIONS SUPPORT the WOMENSPACE FUTURE PROGRAM – THANK YOU!
Looking for a place to run a workshop, an event or a meeting?
https://womenspace.org.au/
Become a Womenspace Member for $20/year
https://womenspace.org.au/
WOMENSPACE OFFICE HOURS IN 2024: Wednesdays and Thursdays 9am – 1pm
(Mob: 0431 112 721).