Women on Women

This week-end, Wow celebrates 17 years since we first began! We have held drop-ins each week, and had the pleasure of meeting hundreds of women over the years. WoW  was started by a group of inspired and inspiring women who held their first meeting in JT Books-a bookshop run by two women in Norwich-and we realised there was a need for somewhere to socialise that wasn’t the pubs and clubs. A safe space for women, where we could break away from the steroe-typical  lesbian images, and fully be ourselves. A place to meet people, talk about the issues important to us, explore coming out, plan social events, and find ways of accessing support that was inclusive of our particular needs.

There were fundraising parties, lively Lemon Lounge Parties, regular meetings in the Ten Bells (where the name WoW was decided on) and logos designed, charity application made, constitutions drawn up, and it was a huge amount of work for those women who started it-and for whom we are today immensely thankful!

Newsletters were sent out by post (pre computer for most of us!) and a team went into the clubs at the week-ends with safer sex info and packs. A coach full of wow members went to London Pride with the banner-made by one of our members(which we still use today at Norwich Pride).

Over the years, wow has changed and evolved to meet the need of the women who come and contact us. Its remained organic in that sense. Its been moving as women have shared their stories, and hard as funding has been minimal. Its been fascinating and lots of fun too.Volunteers have been trained, a phone line and befriending service is now running-and links with service providers in Norfolk have continued to be positive, as we work behind the scenes to ensure that lesbian and bisexual women’s needs are listened to, and taken into account. The police and Age UK have been particular areas of work in recent years, and we work closely with Norfolk LGBT Project(which is where we meet).

As we continue, we hope that wow will remain a supportive, friendly and welcoming space-and be able to support women starting up various groups and activities. We hope to work toward alleviating isolation for those women who cannot get out, or who do not feel  able to be open about their sexuality, and will be focusing on those in care homes, or being cared for in their homes this year.

And of course-we look forward to meeting more of you, or hearing from you-and thank you for your support! Happy Birthday WoW! Jo and the WoW Team