Ruth here-- signing off, having come to the end of my term as Chairperson of the Whitworth Trust. It's been quite a year. 🤯
At the AGM last night I had such a lot of people to thank for their time, generosity and support, and a number of people to pay tribute to for the role they played in the campaign we held this year--- not least the staff and residents of Whitworth House, who suffered a time of deep uncertainty for much of this year. We all look especially at Jade Tomlinson, the resident who started the petition to 'save Whitworth House' back in January, and who has done brilliant work to raise awareness of the particular problems facing young women in need of housing, community, and social bonds in our city. 
The Whitworth Trust committee and I are grateful to all of the individuals and organisations that we've made links with this year, and who helped us with our campaign to support Whitworth House. 
To anyone who is even remotely interested in joining the committee, please do get in touch with the wonderful Trustees via whitworthtrust@gmail.com and they would be delighted to hear from you. 
They are STILL looking for someone to take over from me as Chair (even though interim arrangements are now in place), but they could also benefit from: 
> student reps interested in fundraising
> student reps interested in campaigning and raising awareness, and working with Whitworth House 
> someone to help edit the website and Facebook now that I'm not going to be around (with my emojis) any more  
I will miss being involved in the Trust, but will look forward to watching it grow, and go from strength to strength.

PLEASE SAVE THE DATE for the Whitworth Trust Annual General Meeting! 
**Magdalene College, Friday 4th October 2019, 5:30-7:30PM**

If you'd like to attend then we'd love to see you there.

Please email whitworthtrust@gmail.com to confirm your attendance and sign up to receive an agenda for the meeting. 

We will be planning and strategising for the coming year, asking how we can use our funds most effectively to support homeless and vulnerable women in Cambridge, and we look forward to introducing everyone to our new Secretary! 

📢 📢 The search for a new Chairperson to replace Ruth continues!! Please be in touch if you are interested in becoming chair, or even an interim chairperson for our new committee, while we secure the longer-term future of the charity. 📢 📢

Another date for your diaries: 
HOMELESSNESS & HEARTBREAK – VIOLENCE & THE CRISIS IN YOUNG WOMEN’S HOUSING
A panel discussion hosted by Cllrs Claire Richards (Castle) and Jocelynne A. Scutt (Arbury) 
Thursday 19th September 
7pm 
St Giles Church (http://www.churchatcastle.org/)
SPEAKERS: 
Angie Stewart (Cambridge Women’s Aid)
Zareen Taj, anti-racist activist 
Jan Stevens (Citizens Advice Aylesbury) 
Caroline Mackechnie-Jarvis (Corona House) 
Please join us for an important discussion on a vital topic.

Ruth, our Chairperson, was a guest on Neil Whiteside's show for Cambridge 105 Radio last week.  
You can listen here: https://cambridge105.co.uk/neil-whiteside-27-06-2019/
Ruth and Neil discuss the work of the charity,  the wider commitment to helping homeless people in Cambridge, and the decision by Cambridgeshire County Council to continue funding Whitworth House for 18 months. 

If you think you know someone who might just be our next Chairperson, get in touch at whitworthtrust@gmail.com

The recommendation will go to the County Council’s Children’s committee on 21st May for approval.

The news has been covered by Varsity here, and by the Cambridge Independent here. 

The Whitworth Trust is looking for new Trustees! 

We're a very small group (6 people!) of volunteers, and are very keen to welcome new people with ideas and energy to join our team. Indeed, we're especially hoping to gather some new members at this time, to help with our campaign against the closure of Whitworth House. 

Do you have experience with fundraising? OR Do you know your way around a website/social media? OR Do you have a little bit of spare time on your hands and would like to get involved with a small local charity?

Our current Chairperson, Ruth, comes to the end of her term this year, and we're looking for someone to take the charity forward when she steps down. This volunteer role is one that  a person could really make their own,  and  would be an opportunity for someone with a vision for helping to alleviate homelessness and poverty among women in Cambridge to join with other local groups to make change.

Ruth is a member of the 'WHAG' (Women and Homelessness Action Group) team, which formed out of last year's 'It Takes a City' summit on homelessness in Cambridge. The Whitworth Trust as a whole is committed to working with other members of WHAG in their action to generate more provision for vulnerable women in our city, and we look forward to seeing what the group and other local agencies can achieve together in the coming months and years.

If you're a Cambridge resident who is interested in helping with our cause of raising money for vulnerable and homeless women, then we'd love to hear from you (and if you know someone who might fit the bill... please be in touch with them to tell them about us)! As well as aiming to fill our chairperson role, we're also looking for a vice-chairperson and a communications and fundraising officer. 

Please drop us a line on whitworthtrust@gmail.com

We look forward to hearing from you! 

In January 2019, the housing association that owns and manages Whitworth House, announced that, following notification of funding cuts from Cambridgeshire County Council, it had decided to sell the property in June. The Whitworth Trust has written an Open Letter, attempting to open a dialogue between the Council, the housing association and the Trust to discuss alternatives to the House's closure.

You can read and sign the Open Letter here: bit.ly/whitworthletter

Following the news that Whitworth House has been threatened with closure, in light of funding cuts made by Cambridgeshire County Council, a current resident has started a petition to garner local support.
The Whitworth Trust would encourage locals to sign, and to stand with her in protest of the closure of this service, which we are certain is needed now more than ever.

Link HERE.

Dear Friends and Supporters, 

We at the Whitworth Trust are heartbroken to have to convey some news. 

We have been informed by Orwell Housing that, after 20 years of working to help young and vulnerable women, Whitworth House will close in June this year.

As many of you know, for the 15 residents of the House (who are all women, 16 to 25 years of age), it offers safe, all-female supported residential accommodation in Cambridge. You can learn more about its history and the inception of the project here: http://www.friendsofwhitworthhouse.org/whitworth-house.html

We have been told that as part of a strategic review of housing provision by County Council Commissioners, Whitworth House is one of the services that has been chosen to have its funding cut.

According to a representative from Orwell Housing – the housing association who have managed and owned Whitworth House since 2000 – the justifications the council gave for the funding cuts were as follows: 

(i) Whitworth House was not assessed as being a specialist service, acting as a resource for multiple areas or offering a service which is significantly different to anything else in the local area.

(ii) Stakeholders have also flagged an over provision of services for young people in the Cambridge City area.

The above has come to us from Orwell, and we haven't spoken to representatives from the County Council yet -- this will be a next priority for us at the Whitworth Trust.

Indeed, a full critique of the decision to cut funding to this service will be useful. The next steps for our committee will be to gather as much information as we can about the conditions, circumstances, and timescale of these proposed funding cuts, and their repercussions for the provision of safe, on-going support for young women in Cambridge, many of whom come from a background of domestic and sexual violence, where mixed sex accommodation may be problematic.

The committee welcomes any and all suggestions for strategies to help safeguard such provision for women. We believe that it is imperative that this vulnerable group is supported in our community. We are hoping something can be done.

We can easily call Whitworth House a ‘service’, but it has also been a home for hundreds of vulnerable and precariously-housed women over the past 20 years. Many residents moved on and into full time education, employment, and most importantly there is started to trust a system that had failed them. As an institution, we believe that it has worked to help many women in the long term. 

Orwell Housing tell us that from their perspective, the only option appears to be to accept the funding withdrawal, and as a result they can see no solution other than to close and then sell the property. 

*** 

You will note that this post, which contains provisional information, is on the blog 'news and events' section of our website. We hope to make a more constructive statement in the next couple of weeks, after the committee has met and discussed some strategies for the future of provision of homeless women in Cambridge.

​In the meantime, our aim is to work with Orwell to find out how we as a charity can support the current residents of Whitworth House.