Women in Touch celebrates its 10 year anniversary

Published: Wednesday, October 09, 2019

We were delighted to attend the celebration of our group member Women in Touch in Granard, Co. Longford on the 8th October.  Women in Touch are a peer led women's social support group. They joined NWCI in 2016. They are supported by Lus Na Greine Family Resource Centre. Eileen Finan is the Coordinator of the FRC and Patty Fitzgerald is the chairperson of the group. They both emphasised the magic that happens when women come together.  Ten years on, it is a significant achievement that the group is still, if not, more vibrant and strong.

Some of the group's achievements are:

·  The growth in self esteem and confidence reported by members

·  The friendships and caring relationships that have formed

·  The inclusiveness of the group which encompasses women from all backgrounds, nationalities, abilities and talents

·  Women have up-skilled in many disciplines, some have gone back to work simply because of the confidence the group gave them, some have set up their own businesses and some have gone on to further education.

·  Members have reported that the comfort of the group has helped them through bereavements, family crisis, mental health issues, family conflict, depression and recession 

·  The group has reduced social isolation which can be all prevalent  but particularly in rural areas  where there is a lack of resources and transportation

Many of the women are the back bone of the Family Resource Centre's Social Enterprise which is a pre-loved boutique that retails new and used clothing, furtniture and bric-a-brac, The shop has been the life saver of the FRC during recessionary times and continues to help to fund many other social services delivered by the centre. 

An academic paper about the group entitled  ‘They Pulled Me Through the Darkest Times’: Exploring the social benefits of a women’s group in rural Ireland.was published in the Irish journal of  Applied Social Studies in 2018. You can read the paper here.