Guest blog by Johanna
Wilson, Borough Belles WI
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The office where it all happens...
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It felt strange to be entering
the heart of the Women’s Institute in London. While I am the Social Media
Officer for the Borough Belles WI and have been a proud Belle since last
year, that’s only part of the reason I am here. The other? Curiosity. I moved
to London to work as part of the Charityworks Graduate
Scheme, which offers the opportunity for trainees to explore the charity sector
further. Hearing from organisations across the sector got me thinking: while I
understand how traditional charities work, how does an organisation like the
National Federation of Women’s Institutes (NFWI) work? An organisation that is
made up of smaller charities with their own boards, that operates on a
federation model and whose campaigns are determined by the membership. I got in
touch to find out more about how the NFWI supports members to campaign, and the
Public Affairs and Communications teams were kind enough to let me visit for a
day to find out for myself!
The WI has a proud history and
has thrived since it was founded in 1915 to help
develop rural communities and encourage women to become involved in food
production during WW1, becoming what is now the largest voluntary women's
organisation in the UK. The model can be a bit complex to get your head
around. Your own WI is an individual charity while your Federation provides
opportunities and support for a number of WIs. The National Federation is a
national charity which represents WI members across the UK and provides
guidance and support to Federations and WIs, and a lot of their work goes
unseen; in fact, some WI members don’t even know they exist. When I visited the
office, everyone was pretty excited preparing for the upcoming Annual Meeting
(AM). The AM is the key date in the NFWI’s calendar. It’s not only a logistical
challenge for the Events team and an important WI tradition. It is the votes of
the delegates at the AM that sets the organisation’s campaign work for years to
come. It decides who they’ll be working with, where they’ll be focusing their
energies, what actions members can do and what message they’ll be sharing.
Though there are a lot of stages to the process, every
resolution is proposed by a WI member and shortlisted by members. These
resolutions are then debated throughout the organisation by local WIs before
being brought to the AM, and once a resolution is adopted, it becomes part of a
bank of mandates dating back to the earliest days of the WI, and can be worked
on at any point in the future.
When discussing the campaign
resolutions put forward this year with the team, there are clear
benefits to both. Food poverty is a huge challenge, with food bank use in the
UK at a record high and eight million people in the UK struggling to put food on
the table. At the same time, dementia care is an issue that is growing in
importance and dementia carers are currently saving UK services £11 billion annually. The WI currently has no resolution on
unpaid care, an issue that still predominantly affects women and in the Public
Affairs department they have to keep an eye to campaigns that could open up
other avenues for work (the fun thing about writing this retrospectively is
that I now know both of these resolutions have passed!) There is a huge variety in WI
campaigns work, both on a daily basis and in the new campaigns that have been
chosen by members. Just a few of these are:
- More Midwives: The WI’s Midwives campaign has been widely
celebrated and since its launch in 2012, NFWI research has been cited in
NHS England’s National Maternity Review and the WI have contributed to The National Institute of Health and Care
Excellence’s first ever safe-staffing guidance for midwifery services.
One staff member at NFWI was so inspired by the campaign that she has
since gone on to become a midwife herself!
- Care Not Custody: In
2008, the WI passed a resolution calling for an end to the inappropriate
detention of people with mental health problems and has been working with
the Prison Reform Trust towards this. This was a campaign of particular
interest to me, not only due to my interest in mental health but also
because the charity I work for runs Liaison and Diversion services. Mental health in the criminal
Justice system is sadly still a huge challenge, but following on from the
trial sites and despite delays, the NFWI is hopeful that a full rollout of
these services will be announced soon - a huge success and a promise of
support when people need it the most.
- Climate Change: While this campaign is a longstanding
one, there will be a lot of new actions and campaign work coming up. So
watch this space, or if you want to get in on the ground floor, apply to
be a volunteer Climate Ambassador and work with NFWI to look at climate
change in your local area (details here).
Yet what seems most surprising is
the continuity of campaigns. To celebrate the centenary last year, we Belles
did a whistle-stop tour of the century, and looking at what previous
campaigns have been, some issues have clearly remained at the heart of the
Women’s Institute. Yes, it seems unlikely that a resolution 'that this meeting, remembering that our young
Queen has duties as a wife and mother urges the nation as a whole not to
overwork her Majesty' (1952) would get passed now, but the WI has spent
one hundred and one years speaking out on the environment, education, women’s
rights and rural services, and will be fighting for these issues as we move
into the next century.
The team are quick to acknowledge
the challenges they face and where they plan to make improvements. The WI is
still an organisation that is predominantly rural and while the number of women
living in rural areas who are members is fantastic, there are practical
challenges to communicating with them. There was even a case of one WI
streaming the Centenary AM for their members, which promptly took out the
internet in their whole town! Because of this, WI Life is the only consistent
way to reach everyone, which brings its own challenges in terms of sharing
information quickly, especially for those of us who are used to checking our
emails religiously! The WI has a huge geographical reach, which can make it challenging
to make sure campaigns are relevant to all members. It’s not rare that proposed
resolutions don’t address the current situation in Wales or the Islands who
have separate parliaments and work in a completely different legal framework.
The Public Affairs team always has to have a view to the wider picture.
Yet it is the strengths of the WI
that stand out, and the strength of its members that makes it so formidable.
Members of the WI are there because they want to be there and the organisation
is member-led. While the small public affairs team doesn’t always have the detailed
policy knowledge needed for a new campaign, they are able to create strong
partnerships with national organisations, where their partners bring the
resources and political links and the WI bring 220,000 engaged and passionate
members across the country. The range of campaigns means that there’s always an
action to do or somewhere to push for change; from specific climate change
action weeks to legal changes around country of origin labelling on food. While
the old-world “Jam and Jerusalem” stereotype can linger in the minds of some
press offices and production companies, the variety of what the WI does and the
women who are members have broken down this stuffy reputation over time.
As the make-up and lives of
members change, the NFWI is re-examining their ways of communicating and selecting
resolutions. Work to review the resolutions process and consider ways to
improve it is underway. The NFWI is also currently organising a full members’
census. With new members joining all the time and new WIs being started every
week, now is a perfect time to ask members for their views on campaigns, Denman
and ensuring education is accessible for all, as well as something as basic as
how people would like to be contacted. The NFWI always looks to change and
evolve to ensure that the WI represents every member, old and new, while
keeping true to the its roots and ethos.
The Public Affairs team’s
newsletter relaunched recently, so you can sign up here to receive regular updates. If there
has been one takeaway message I left the NFWI with, it is that the members are
at the heart of what is done here and they want to hear from them, not only
about their ideas and requests but even just about what they are up to. Hearing
from members is what keeps the NFWI connected and they’re always looking to
hear from more people - remember, any member can submit a resolution. So finally, all that remains is to
say a big thank you to Lisa, Oliver, Jana, Emma, Joanna, Charlotte and Fiona
for hosting me for the day!
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