YWCA England & Wales

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Categories: press releases, regional news: Midlands
Sunday, 8 March 2009
YWCA Northampton to celebrate International Women's Day

Mayor and Mayoress of Northampton to join in celebrations

Young women at YWCA Northampton Women's Centre are celebrating International Women's Day by holding an Open Day on Thursday 5^th March where they will exhibit the programmes they access and give presentations on YWCA's parenting programme for young mums.

The young women, who are mostly young mums accessing the centre's education programmes or young-mums-to-be-courses, have arranged an ongoing PowerPoint presentation showing their activities at the centre. Youth workers will give presentations at 12pm, 1pm and 2pm on their important work with young women in the area including education programmes and outreach work in schools on sexual health.

The Mayor of Northampton, Councillor Brian Markham and The Mayoress will attend the event, along with professionals from neighbouring youth organisations, Connexions and local midwives. The event is also open to the general public.

Milly Barry, 16, is one the young mums who accesses YWCA's services. She says: "I started coming to YWCA when I was five months pregnant and had no confidence about myself of being a mother. Now my son is 13 weeks old and my confidence is so much higher."

Kathryn White, YWCA's Centre Manager says: "We wanted this day to be for the young women to show how others how much of a difference it has made for them to access a safe space where they can meet other women, increase their education and confidence and get vital support. As its International Women's Day on 8^th March we all want to send out a message to other women to celebrate their accomplishments, whether it's raising a child or completing a maths course, and feel ready to tackle future challenges."