The Powerhouse


	What are the Powerhouse projects ?
	LIFT THEATRE PROJECT We had a big challenge and a lot of fun in June when we worked with a famous theatre company called Back To Back Theatre: http://backtobacktheatre.com/ We worked really hard to put on an AMAZING PERFORMANCE as part of the LIFT Festival in Canning Town. It was also Learning Diasbaility Week, and we felt very happy to be able to work with this exciting and famous thetare company. A big thank you to Bruce, Pat, Erika and everyone else that helped us. We will put pictures and more feedback up soon! Stay tuned! GREEN FINGERS Us Power Women have grown green fingers, because we’ve all been planting vegetables in our small allotment in Canning Town. It’s been fun, and we go down every Monday morning. We’ve also been lucky because our wonderful volunteer Atai has been teaching us about fun new vegetables that we hadn’t tried before. We also realised that we have different names for things. Katrina and Amanda called it spinach, but Gusharen calls it saag! PROJECT WITH FIRST LINE EMPLOYMENT Powerhouse has been lucky to work with Rashpal from First Line Employment. We’ve all been thinking about what job we’d like to get, and what skills we’d need. She is very friendly and is giving us useful and helpful advice about getting a job. Amanda likes the idea of working with animals but Sarah prefers the idea of office work! COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT Powerhouse is still busy in the community, going to the Health Task Gorup and Living Forum Group with Newham People First. This means that people will listen to the needs of women with learning difficulties, and the discrimination we face! POWERBODIES ‘POWER BODIES MAKE US STRONGER’ says Theresa Augustine, Powerhouse member… Powerhouse is a space for all women with learning difficulties, from every culture, age and background. This project has been about acceptance, building confidence and self-belief. PowerBodies was funded by ROSA (thank you ROSA J ) Deborah, a long-term member of the Powerhouse says: ‘PowerBodies is about women from all places, getting along and loving themselves. When you look at magazines you also want to look like that, but it’s not easy. When I was younger I used to beautiful, and much slimmer. But in PowerBodies we looked at all kinds of women. We realised we need more pictures of women in wheelchairs and with multiple and profound disabilities.’ Women at the Powerhouse realise that there is a lot of pressue on women to do lots of things, like having a job and earning money! Theresa says: ‘The Powerhouse knows that women often don’t like the way they look and aren’t happy. In one session we all discovered that we couldn’t find many things about our appearance that we liked. The staff here would’nt let us leave without being proud of three things about our bodies- we realised that we have lots to be proud of.’ This project brought a lot of life, colour and fun into the Powerhouse. We did art every Monday and have painted different women from all over the world onto canvasess. We talked about the fact that everyone has a different idea of beauty, and women with learning difficulties are also very beautiful. Through the PowerBodies project we also went on trips to leisure centres, smoothie bars, the theatre and Wellcome Trust Museum to see an exhibtion about the Human Body. We also went to community Health Meetings and Hospitals to speak up for the rights of women with learning difficulties. Our drama sesisons encouraged us to talk about the discrimination we face everyday as women with learning difficulties: at work, on transport, at the doctors. One membersaid ‘I love the dancing and the exercise we do here. It is fun. I get tired but I know it is good for me’ whilst another said ‘Drama is my favourite thing. I used to be shy but now I love it more.’ Lisa, a member who attends sessions twice a week says noticed that ‘magazines show women different from real life! They are not real women. PowerBodies teaches you to like yourself, and feel good. I think women with Learning Difficulties like their bodies, I do not compare myself to magazines!’. This is re-iterated by her friend Deborah’s comments: ‘People are too worried about what they look like. I am happy to be who I am!’ The project was supposed to end a few months ago, yet it is so popular with members that the project is still continuing. We are currently looking at new ways to fund the project! Go to this link for more info on the brilliant ROSA http://www.rosauk.org/grants/default/previous-grants.aspx
	We have a supporter who gives us information about going out to different places. She understands our needs and difficulties. Some of us don’t go to a pub because of our culture, family tradition or our religion.
	Conferences and Training
	Some of the things we have done include: Induction training for volunteers working at Newham Leisure Link. We did accessing information and recruitment training for the South Bank University. Sarah has been Powerhouse’s representative on the 1st Steps training course for the voluntary sector which has been very useful for our organisation. The Tizard Centre Summer School at the university of Kent invited us to talk about Powerhouse and how we set up the Beverley Lewis House refuge. We ran a workshop at a conference organised by Scope called ‘Disability and Adult Protection’.
	Working with other organisations
	We worked at the Winchester Centre with a group of people with learning difficulties about ideas for making a Leisure book. This was a continuation of the Changing Days group we talked about in our last Annual Report. We have a very good working relationship with Leisure Link and work together on the Leisure & Advocacy project. Christina is meeting regularly with the new manager of Beverley Lewis Safe House so that we can plan future work together. We joined lots of organisations in Newham during International Women’s week. We displayed an exhibition of our history and the work that we do.