Laura McIntyre, Deputy Manager of Women’s Services at The Cyrenians has been awarded a prestigious Churchill Fellowship.
Laura’s Fellowship project is entitled ‘Changing Lives, Building Futures for Women on the Margins’ and will take her to Australia where she will visit and work in projects in Sydney and Perth which are tackling sexual exploitation.
The Women’s Health and Family Services (WHFS) in Sydney and The Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP) in Perth, both work with women and families who are marginalised, providing them with medical, counselling, drug and alcohol support, domestic violence, mental and physical health services.
Each year the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust awards Travelling Fellowship grants to enable Churchill Fellows to carry out projects overseas.
A rigorous application and interview process has to be undertaken. This year over 600 people applied for the 100 fellowships.
Laura has worked with The Cyrenians for 4 years and will use the experience to benefit the GAP Project which provides a safe, confidential and supportive service for women involved in sex work and those who are vulnerable to sexual exploitation within the North East.
Laura said:
“I am delighted and proud to have received a Churchill Fellowship Award. I am hoping that by experiencing how these specialist projects in Australia work I will be able bring back some of their ideas to the UK to further develop The Cyrenians services in this very difficult and sensitive area of support work.”
Stephen Bell, Group Chief Executive of The Cyrenians said:
“We are very proud of Laura for gaining this Fellowship. The knowledge she will bring back to The Cyrenians will be invaluable. We are always looking to develop our services; this opportunity will benefit the 232 women who come to us each year for support.”
Laura will be keeping a daily 'blog' to inform anyone who wishes to follow her travels, a link to this will be on the Cyrenians web page www.thecyrenians.org and also at http://cyrenianslaura.wordpress.com
