Women's charity launches 'transformational' poetry project

YWCA Yorkshire's Listening Project ran throughout 2024, collecting hundreds of lived experiences from women through workshops, one-to-one conversations and anonymous letters.

The charity provides a mix of housing and trauma-informed services to women, children and families at facilities including Fleming Gardens in Flanderwell and Green Gables in Mexborough.

YWCA Yorkshire crafted the YWCA women's stories into a series of ten linked poems by poet, author, and women’s advocate Rachel Bower.

The launch of ‘Look How Far You Have Come - A Small Book Of Big Poems By Women' was hosted in the Lord Mayor’s Parlour at Sheffield Town Hall and attended by Lord Mayor of Sheffield, Cllr Jayne Dunn, Mayor of Rotherham, Cllr Sheila Cowen and the Civic Mayor of Doncaster, Cllr Julie Grace.

The poems describe the journeys, successes, friendships and hopes for the future as told by young women supported by YWCA Yorkshire, with themes explored including homelessness, domestic abuse, financial hardship, trauma, parenting, sexual violence, exploitation, and relationship breakdowns.

Bradford-born writer Rachel Bower, who won The London Magazine Short Story Prize 2019/20 and the W&A Short Story Competition 2020, said: “It has been an honour to listen to the experiences, feelings and hopes of women in this project. I'm grateful to the women who trusted me with their stories, and I hope the poems do justice to the huge range of experiences the women shared.

Projects like this are important as everyone has a story to tell, but sometimes people feel that they haven’t ever really been listened to before.

“It can be transformational when people are offered the chance to connect with other people and explore their experiences in creative ways.”

YWCA Yorkshire chief executive Tracy Gollins added: “By sharing our learning from the YWCA Listening Project, we hope to engage more people to listen to and understand the challenges faced by women and girls and to signpost the vital support that is available to women through community, charity, and third sector organisations local to them.”

The book of poems ‘Look how far you have come’ was sponsored by Wesco Anixter EMEA’s Women's Impact Network business resource group.

Joanne Broomhead from WIN, said: “We’re thrilled to be part of this movement to support women in telling their often unheard and misunderstood stories, because all women everywhere need to know, their story matters.

“Today we celebrate all women everywhere who lift each other up, empower each other, and advocate for change.”

Alongside the book, YWCA Yorkshire has released a video of the poem ‘Sunflowers’.

The spoken word recordings and music production by Hybrid3 were sponsored by Together Housing and the video, produced by LensGo, was sponsored by Roy Hatfield Group.

People can order their copy of ‘Look How Far You’ve Come’ and donate to YWCA Yorkshire in support of women and girls via https://bit.ly/YWCApoetrybook.

Watch the video here: https://bit.ly/YWCAsunflowers.