Dear Friends, Alumni and Fellows

It’s been an exciting first six months for me as the new General Manager of the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre, with a refreshed staff team bedding down a great range of programs and initiatives for women. We continue to work closely with the other ten women’s organisations in the building on activities like our International Women’s Day information market in the QV Square.

Hundreds of women (and many men) grabbed a showbag, checked out the information available and listened to entertainment. We’ve also been busy launching the Shilling Wall and Garden and planning future events and programs that we’ll be launching over the next year. We have enjoyed meeting so many of you at the Centre and are looking forward to seeing you all at a workshop or event over the next few months.

Don’t miss an opportunity to improve your financial knowledge, at one of our Securing Your Financial Future Workshops and Seminars for women. And keep November free in your diaries, as the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre join women throughout Victoria celebrate the Centenary of Women’s Suffrage. We will shortly release details of the Centre’s 100 Years Since Women Got the Vote event program. This newsletter will be released bimonthly with updates from August 2008.

If you have any news or comments, please get in touch at comms@qvwc.org.au.

Margaret Burdeu

General Manager

We have news of a wonderful new initiative of interest to all women across regional and metropolitan Victoria.

"Steps to Securing Your Financial Future" is a series of FREE workshops and seminars for women being run during Women&Money Month - September 2008 by the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre, in partnership with WIRE – Women’s Information and the Victorian Government.

27 Practical Workshop programs will be run in nine locations across Victoria. The locations for 2008 are: Altona Meadows, Geelong, Ararat, Mildura; Thornbury, Euroa, Box Hill, Mordialloc, and Sale. Local community trainers will facilitate each workshop program which comprises four, two hour sessions spread over four weeks to allow for out-of-session activities. The workshops are an opportunity to explore and review your approach to money, your spending and saving habits and relationship with money. The sessions will allow you to start thinking about financial goals and a plan of action for now and into the future and begin to look at information, resources and support to help you take steps to securing your financial future.

12 Informative Seminars will be run at the Queen Victoria Women's Centre. The seminars cover six essential money management topics for women of all ages and will be run on Tuesday evenings and Saturday’s from 2nd to 20th September. You can pick and choose the days and topics that are right for you.

Spaces are limited so REGISTER NOW.

The registration form can be downloaded from here.

It can then be completed electronically and emailed back to the QVWC at: women.money@qvwc.org.au

Since the launch, nominees and their families have come to an Open Day at the Centre to view the wall and share their inspiring stories. The Shilling Wall commemorates amazing women in all walks of life, and includes many previously unsung women. Entire families and groups of friends came to the Centre to share their stories of the contributions of the women they are celebrating on the wall. Through the year, significance statements that support tributes will be available to view on our website.

Members of the public are invited to nominate an inspirational woman for the Wall, by making a donation of $150 or more to the Shilling Fund for capacity building programs that benefit women. Come along to the Centre and read the names of the 304 inspirational women on the first two glass panels of the Shilling Wall.

As donations and nominations flow in to the Shilling Fund, more panels will be installed until all of the panels on the wall are full. The Shilling Wall Garden was completed with sponsorship from BHP Billiton, and the Shilling Wall concept obtained from a competition won by architect Cassandra Complex.

Women in ICT reward excellence with Shilling Wall nominations.

Women working in the ICT sector decided to give Shilling Wall tributes as prizes in their annual awards.

QVWC Trust member and Chairman of VicICT for Women Michelle Beveridge explained “Instead of something that would be kept at home or in their work places with limited visibility, we decided to have their names etched on the Shilling Wall as a permanent and public token of our respect for their achievements … And with the added bonus that the Shilling Fund is used to continue the women’s programs run through the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre.”

A number of new staff have joined the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre in capacity building and programs and finance.

A new project officer has also joined us to work on financial literacy.

For more information on the new team, see our staff page. We look forward to meeting you at one of the busy events coming up in our calendar or hearing from anyone keen to volunteer.

The Queen Victoria Women’s Centre Trust has written to the Premier supporting the decriminalisation of abortion in Victoria. The Trust commends the Victorian Law Reform Commission’s considered Law of Abortion: Final Report that recommends that abortion be removed from the Crimes Act. Given the well-regulated clinical environment, other supports in place and the complexity of issues facing individual women around abortion, the Trust called for the Government to adopt legislative Model C proposed by the Commission. Along with other women’s organizations, the Trust is of the view that adoption of Model C will modernise and clarify the law, reflect current community standards; and not alter current clinical practice. The Trust also called for additional Government funding support and education around contraception and family planning to go hand in hand with abortion law reform.

The Trust’s letter to the Premier follows on from a joint press release issued by the Trust welcoming a statement by ten women’s organisations housed in the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre. The joint media statement calls for immediate action on abortion law reform. All women are encouraged to write to your local member with your concerns.

Further information can be obtained from the Centre of from the or from Women’s Health Victoria at http://www.whv.org.au/topical/abortion.htm

A copy of the Commission’s final report can be obtained here.

The Queen Victoria Women’s Centre is gearing up to celebrate the Centenary of Women’s Suffrage in Victoria with an events program involving a range of women’s groups in October and November.

Women around Victoria will be celebrating obtaining the vote 100 years ago. The fun begins with a walk of art… and art exhibition on Sunday 26th October, and will continue through November. Visit our website or the Office of Women’s Policy website for more details.

a walk of art… and art exhibition

Celebrating 100 years of the Women’s Vote in Victoria, the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre asks you to join us on a walk of art...and art exhibition. Pay homage to our Suffragette sisters who made sacrifices to give women a voice, and acknowledge our contemporaries who in their chosen fields inspire other women to reach out for their goals. Meet at Federation Square and listen to a special performance by Lisa Edwards and the Opening address by Judy Maddigan MP, the first female Speaker of Parliament.

Time: 11am, Day: 26 October 2008

Walk from Federation Square with your art via Parliament House to the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre. Join in an open art exhibition and the hanging of 30 selected artworks in the QVWC Gallery Foyer (exhibited through November).

All art forms welcome - all students can register for the Bank of Queensland student art prizes ($600, $300, $100) and for an outstanding artist, the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre is offering an exhibition space in their 2009 program together with assistance with promotion and an exhibition launch.

You can register for the ‘walk of art” and enter the student competition by downloading a registration form here.

More information about participation in ‘a walk of art,‘ contact Wendy on 0417 772 777.