Begin 2 Change – An Empowerment Course for local women funded through UK Government, West Yorkshire Combined Authority & WY Business and Skills 

verd de gris arts were successful in attracting £33.5K funding support to support some of our most disadvantaged and marginalised women in local communities in Calderdale.

This funding came on the back of our most recent WOMEN24 talks series which looked at Work + Opportunity, funded by The National Lottery Community Fund and WY Mayor’s Safer Communities Fund. The talk, co-designed and led by local women, highlighted many of the obstacles local women face in their desire to develop new social opportunities, a return to education, those actively seek work / employment. Begin 2 Change also responds to the prescient national debate around supporting people back into employment.

Begin 2 Change is a sensitive approach to local women’s needs, and has developed a proven and effective methodology. It’s main features include:

to identify and be responsive to individual situations/needs, providing guided and supported progression in a way that works best for the individual woman
to combine the necessary intensity of 1:1 support with life-affirming, life-changing group work
to make best use of direct lived experience, by means of group activity sessions being led by project workers who themselves have been B2C past participants and have been mentored and trained to deliver emotional support work to current cohorts of B2C participants
to employ a way of working that is particularly empathetic, patient, encouraging and supportive, playing women into progression opportunities within VDG and across the wider service system

Begin 2 Change has proved to be hugely successful as an effective way of supporting women to make systematic, sustainable changes in their lives. In recent B2C cohorts, all participants saw marked improvement in their sense of wellbeing, due to having been given confidence and space to explore issues that matter most to them in a supported environment, touching them in a deep way.

Furthermore, the rate of progression into each of various ‘concrete positive outcomes’ – paid employment, training or volunteering – is impressive, thanks to the blending of 1:1 support and empathetic, sensitive, supportive group work with peers.

Early work on the project has resulted in some immediate success stories, with a number of participants signing up to college access course and entry-level training.