Newsletter - December 2022

Welcome to our December newsletter!

Women’s Health Matters will be closed from 23 December and will reopen 3 January.

We would like to give a shout out to all our amazing members, subscribers, funders, Board members (new and departing), staff and stakeholders!

Thank you for continuing to support us and we look forward to sending you more news next year!

On that note, we will be changing our newsletter next year to quarterly editions. You will still hear from us about individual projects in between these editions!

Read on to see our year wrap.

That's a wrap! Women's Health Matters 2022

What a year!

From starting the year in a state of transition to filling our team and getting our permanent team in place, we couldn’t be prouder of everything our community and stakeholders have helped us to achieve.

From producing reports and introducing Instagram to releasing a survey on accessing abortion in the ACT and launching our survey of women’s health, we have been busy!

Our annual report breaks it down pretty well but here are some of our highlights!

Read our Annual Report

Knowing what Matters!

We worked with women in the ACT especially those who are at risk of disadvantage and marginalisation, or who have specific gender related needs.

We’ve had a lot of highlights this year which you can check out on our website but read on for a recap.

We worked in collaboration with the community sector, primary health care providers, ACT Health, Canberra Health Services and colleagues in other states and territories to explore options around models of care for improved access to abortion services in the ACT.

This year we also:

Conducted in-language focus groups for our research report on the health of women from multicultural backgrounds
Conducted a small survey with ANU students on period poverty
Received funding from the Canberra Foundations Collaborative (Snow Foundation) to deliver a survey on the state of women’s health in the ACT.
Conducted a survey about accessing abortion in the ACT which collected 102 responses.
Continued to utilise our Canberra Safety Map to inform us about how women feel about public spaces.

Communicating what Matters!

We continued to provide ACT women with current and innovative health and wellbeing information.

This year we:

Had our work featured in five news articles, four radio interviews and two TV interviews
Sent out 12 monthly e-newsletters
Introduced an Instagram account!
Engaged with ten local women who shared their stories with the local community
Promoted 33 health and social awareness campaigns

Influencing what Matters!

We continued to be a strong voice for ACT women in informing ACT Government and community services.

One of our big wins was coordinating a submission to the ACT Inquiry into Abortion and Reproductive Choice in the ACT that reflected the views of people with lived experience, community service providers and primary health care providers.

We also launched our Reproductive Health Policy which has contributed to progress in the ACT more broadly, including playing a role in the introduction of a private members motion in the Legislative Assembly to explore options for menstrual and menopause leave for ACT Public Service Employees, as well as encouraging other ACT organisations to introduce and explore their own reproductive health policies.

This year we:

Published our Assisted Reproductive Technology report and it’s recommendations were tabled by Minister Stephen-Smith in the Legislative Assembly
Made a submission to the Woden CIT Campus Consultation based on the Canberra Safety Map

Made a submission to the exposure draft of the Period Products (Access) Bill 2022

Launched our Women with Disability report which has since been used as a foundation document for scoping and further consultation on the ACT Disability Health Strategy

Empowering Women in what Matters!

We continued to work with the health system and other services to deliver a rich assortment of health promotion programs to empower local women to better manage their health and wellbeing.

This year we:

Held a stall at ANU O-Week market day and delivered a workshop called How to Adult: when you need help for your health.
Designed a video navigation series on sexual and reproductive health for young women in the ACT.
Received funding to implement a women’s safety in public spaces health promotion campaign
Used our digital platforms and many websites to continue to provide information to empower local women to manage their health

What's on the horizon?

We have heaps of projects coming up in 2023, some of which you read about above.

We will be continuing to focus on reproductive health related activities, the health needs of women with a disability, women from multicultural communities and violence prevention projects in the new year.

We can’t wait to share updates with you but in the interim you can head to our What’s On? page on our website to get involved!

We hope everyone has a wonderful and restful end of year break and that you can celebrate the holiday season with your loved ones.

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Women's Centre for Health Matters · PO Box 385 · Mawson · Canberra, Act 2607 · Australia