The Women’s Sector Lobbyist has been added to the Department for Communities Emergency Leadership Group and has now attended two meetings representing the women’s sector. In the first meeting held on Thursday 30thApril, updates were given on COVID-19 and the impact on women alongside plans to work on a feminist recovery plan. At the second […]
This week is Maternal Mental Health week and the Women’s Sector Lobbyist, Rachel Powell has written to the Minister for the Department of Health, Robin Swann to request an update from the Department on the delivery of perinatal mental health services in Northern Ireland as a matter of urgency. WRDA coordinated the Maternal Advocacy Support […]
WRDA is a member of the Women’s Policy Group (WPG) and hosts the Women’s Sector Lobbyist, Rachel Powell who campaigns on behalf of the whole sector. As such we have been at the forefront of lobbying on ways to reduce the impact of Covid-19 on women. A statement from the WPG on the gendered impact […]
Introduction: The Women’s Resource and Development Agency welcomes the proposed legislative changes regarding domestic abuse and violence both within the Northern Ireland Assembly and in Westminster Parliament. Activists, women’s organisations and support providers have spent many years calling for adequate domestic abuse legislation in Northern Ireland. In the current global pandemic, domestic abuse and violence […]
Professor Hugo van Woerden, Director of Public Health and Medical Director at the PHA, said: “Coronavirus, and the impact it is having on our normal way of life, is understandably going to affect people’s emotional and physical wellbeing – concern about the virus and illness it may cause and the effects of staying at home […]
During COVID-19 normal maternity services will be temporarily reconfigured. To keep pregnant women informed of these changes the Public Health Agency (PHA) has launched a new Northern Ireland Maternity COVID-19 website. The website will provide pregnant women with information about services in their trust as well as useful information on what COVID-19 is and how […]
WRDA Covid-19 contingency planning commenced early March as uncertainty and panic levels were beginning to escalate. Yet despite the cancellation of some BC&B sessions, workshops and training programmes the majority of targets set for 2019/20 have been met and in some areas targets have been exceeded. Some areas of work e.g. lobbying & policy have […]
The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2020 were introduced by the Northern Ireland Executive on 28th March, 2020. The purpose of this legislation is to allow the PSNI to enforce social distancing but instances of police abuse have already occurred. The police claim that ‘Where our officers encounter people outside who do not appear […]
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented challenge across society worldwide, and Northern Ireland is no different. The current crisis affects men and women differently, and in many cases deepens the inequalities women experience on an everyday basis. While medical evidence shows that men who are diagnosed with the virus are more likely to […]
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented challenge across society in Northern Ireland. It has put in sharp focus the value and importance of care work, paid and unpaid, and highlighted the essential nature of often precarious and almost always low paid retail work. Women undertake the majority of this work, and women will […]
WPG Calls Out Delay in Enacting Safe Leave for Domestic Abuse LegislationSeptember 26, 2024 - 12:51 pm
October is Breast Cancer Awareness MonthSeptember 26, 2024 - 10:16 am
Budgetary Targets Needed to Improve Outcomes for Women and GirlsSeptember 3, 2024 - 8:42 am
WRDA Statement on Islamophobic and Racist RiotsAugust 7, 2024 - 1:26 pm