Some months back, I read one of those social media memes asking why schools didn’t teach useful things like budgeting; doing taxes; healthy, economic cooking; making clothes, car mechanics and so on . . . and I wondered where do we learn that? Youtube? Google? Night classes? We don’t always find the answer to life’s tricky questions at the end of an internet search and classes can be expensive and sometimes out of our budget. So, after some joined up and not so joined up thinking, I wondered what it might look like setting up networks of women supporting women. What would you do?, my partner asked. I said, oh maybe growing food, making jams, learning to knit . . . and he ventured, Ah, so you’re going to be a WI, a Women’s Institute! . . . Yes, maybe, only a bit younger and with a twist.

Before you switch off, let me explain a bit further . . .

Running a pilot wellbeing clinic in the Highlands, I learned that women are right, left and centre of health and wellbeing in their families, often juggling a caregiving role with fulltime working and managing super tight budgets – far too many plates spinning! Sometimes this also means putting our own wellbeing to one side while we care for those we love and simply not making us the priority.

So, I am wondering what it would it be like if we simply reach out a helping hand to one another? After all, helping each other to be a better version of ourselves, we are helping today’s and tomorrow’s generations, and the ones that come after.

No matter what happens in the future, this can only strengthen us, our families and our communities.

Imaginal Women will be running health and wellbeing activities, FREE OF CHARGE, every month, initially through:

• Online virtual platforms
• Locally at venues here in the South West of England.

And, eventually:

• Anywhere and wherever in the UK or around the world, that other women want to pick up the idea.

Using the imaginal collective i-maps and social media platforms, we can connect us together.

The activities will include a variety of themes, such as you might find in an actual Women’s Institute, however, the ‘iW’ will be focussed mainly on health and wellbeing.

The programmes will be driven by women sharing and gifting their skills and abilities in support of other women.

The programmes are funded through donations received to the imaginal Collective and through their own revenue generating mechanisms.

If you can afford to make a Donation, we would ask that you to do that, so that we can keep the programme going – paying it forward if you will. (donation link – coming soon)

There are many amazing women’s organisations out there, many of which are targeting women leaders, catalysts and change-makers where it’s felt that the biggest impacts can be made, and we are delighted to profile those. However, those programmes are in the main outside of the average woman’s pockets, and I happen to think that real change will come from ordinary women building each other up.

Please get in contact if you would like to participate and/or have ideas or skills you would like to share, and do visit our Events page, to check out the programmes coming up. (Events link – coming soon)