Brighton Women's Centre
Women's Centre History
Venues
Brighton Women’s Centre was formed in November 1974 by a collective of women who were determined to offer space where women could meet on their own terms to gain mutual support and overcome social isolation. For many years that space was provided either in member’s own homes or community venues.
Then in 1989 a grant from Brighton Council enabled the centre to put down more permanent roots by securing premises in St George’s Mews, off Trafalgar Street. Another move followed 12 years later to Brighthelm, and finally, after five years there, to its present location in High Street, Kemptown.
Services
The Centre has a long history of developing services; The Oasis Project (drugs project) and the Women’s Refuge Project outreach service are two of its success stories. There have been numerous other projects, such as Launch, which empowered many women to obtain professional qualifications. The Centre organised International Women’s Day activities; ran Taking Liberties, which was a creative art festival, ran the Women’s Tent at Pride and many ‘one off’ workshops and events. All the time providing counselling, therapies, Toy Box Creche, the magazine Broadsheet, and the ubiquitous drop-in.
Throughout the early years new services continued to develop through the efforts of volunteers, and it was not until 1997 that the Centre was able to employ its first paid co-ordinator with a grant from the Lottery. The post was part-time of course! Then in 2000, the Centre faced closure when Brighton & Hove Council withdrew its funding support. It was back to the volunteers to keep things going until 2002 when two charitable foundations stepped in with grants to cover the cost of re-introducing a paid co-ordinator’s role.
In 1999 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Centre many events held, and a book written – A Woman’s Place (ISBN 1 874548 30 7), which was also a celebration of women’s lives in Brighton over the last 25 years.
Despite so many funding and premises crisis, the Centre’s continuing activity is a tribute of all those women (and a few men) who have contributed so much over the years.