Women's Health and well-being
Health and Empowerment of Women
At The I Can Centre™ we are passionate about the health, well-being and empowerment of women, incl those in crisis pregnancies and those who have become single parents. We are also very interested in women's health and well-being in mid- and later life, and in raising awareness of the challenges and potential that can come with the second half of life, incl making organisations age and menopause-friendly (see our AgeSpire project inspiring health and well-being through mid- and later years - click here).
Accordingly, we have a number of projects in place / planned, to support and empower women at all ages and stages, e.g:
- Emotional and practical resources and supports - see next section
- WHOW groups (pronounced "wow") - our Women Helping Other Women (WHOW) project brings proabortion and prolife women together to do what women do best - chat and collaborate respectfuly and towards a range of choices, supports, and resources for women in crisis pregnancies; new members most welcome.
- Repair or DIY support* - a planned collaboration with local groups that we hope will help single mums, while being useful for older adults as part of our AgeSPIRE project
- Age-awareness and age-friendly training for businesses and organisations that challenges stereotypes and ageism, and instead enables potential of women, and men, at all ages and stages incl into later life (see our corporate section).
Additionally, all our community courses are age- and child-friendly i.e. suitable for women of all ages, cultures and backgrounds. As such, parents are welcome to join in while a class is ongoing.
Crisis Pregnancy Counselling
We do not offer crisis pregnancy counselling at The I Can Centre™ because we have grave concerns about abortion given our review of the evidence, our 20+ years experience working with women very distressed post-abortion, and our commitment towards equality, respect and non-violence. For further information on our position see conversations on this topic at the base of this page.
Additionally, we are concerned with the insulting. hurtful and disempowering "cant" language around abortion when in fact women are strong and gutsy, and we CAN juggle parenting with other interests and commitments to have a great future. Also, our young deserve to be celebrated and resourced; and as responsible adults, we CAN do whatever we put our minds to, albeit with resources and supports - see these listed here with more to follow from our WHOW subgroup - because #WomenDeserveBetter!
Note: If you hold similar or different views to above, do consider joining WHOW for respectful learning and collaboration.
Crisis Pregnancy and Parenting Supports: Internal
Interventions for Low Mood / Anxiety / Low Confidence
We offer a range of community CBT supports to help women at all ages and stages address challenges of low mood, stress and/or all types of anxiety e.g. worry, panic, and low confidence. This support can include free 1-1 CBT with one of our trainees (only at certain times/locations), AND DAKtivist™ places on our community courses, e.g. for lone mums, or those in crisis pregnancies, we can take an act-of-kindness pledge as part/full payment for a class. Furthermore, the more paying attendees we have, the more DAKtivist™ places we can offer.
CBT for Young People
We offer a growing range of supports to help young people with low mood and all types of anxiety incl worry, panic, phobias and OCD. For instance "Teen Stress Busters" is particularly suitable for school-going young people aged 14-18 years, and DAKtivist™ places may be available to lone parents for their children. 1-1 CBT support however may be more suitable for young people with more complex needs.
Recycle Club for Lone Parents
At all our classes we collect quality, children's items that attendees may no longer need, e.g. toys and clothing. These are then redistributed via community organisations to help lone parents. Attendees at our classes should place donations in "The Kindness Chest" - visible at all classes, knowing that this help will make a huge difference to the lives and well-being of lone parents and their children, especially at holiday times.
Please note: it is our policy NOT to donate individual items to individual parents. Instead all items are logged, and then given directly to organisations who are better positioned to use these as part of a wider package of resources and supports.
GreatBadges.com
GreatBadges.com is a new, social development initiative that we hope will provide jobs and flexible work opportunities for lone mums. By coming together to make the badges, mums might also find peer support and camaraderie, while making really great badges that are inspiring, fun and informative, i.e. great badges that are great in terms of content and also quality. We are very proud to support this prolife initiative, and to help sell these badges until the group is in a position to have their own website. More about this initiative will follow shortly.
Feel Great Gifts and Crafts
Having problems remembering those affirmations? Bring them into every day, with our witty and humorous, feel-great psychology gift range. FeelGreatGifts.com is another pro-all abilities initiative that we hope will provide jobs and opportunities, particularly for single mums and adults with disabilities, while also bringing smiles to faces and helping people feel really great.
A Kinder Society
The I Can Centre is a social development initiative by "A Kinder Society". To that end we also offer a range of clothing, office and home reminders for DAKtivists and others sharing this vision. We hope that these feel-great goods wll act as reminders and reinforcement, while also creating jobs and helping us provide low cost or free interventions to families incl our community based CBT Stress Busters course. Together we CAN create better.
Crisis Pregnancy and Parenting Supports: External
Crisis Pregnancy
- LIFE NI is the leading pregnancy care charity in Northern Ireland set up in 1980 to provide practical care and support for those facing unexpected pregnancy, or needing help during pregnancy or after having a baby
- Stanton Healthcare Belfast offers a range of free and practical supports incl free pregnancy tests, counselling, ultrasound referrals, baby supplies and financial support.
- Gianna Care offers a range of free resources and supports throughout Ireland incl ultrasound, baby equipment and financial help.
- Both Lives Matter provides advocacy support and information towards the well-being of mothers and their infants.
Parenting Supports and Information
- NSPCC for advice on issues to do with children / young people
- Childline for telephone support and information accessed directly by children. Call free on 0800 1111
- CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre) for advice about online sexual abuse / grooming
- Home Start for parenting advice, support and friendship, especially with younger children
- Sure Start provides support services to parents with children aged under four years old, living in disadvantaged areas in NI (click here)
- Parening NI offers free, confidential parenting support and advice on 0808 8010 722
- Get Safe Online is the UK’s leading source of factual and easy to understand information on online safety.
- Samaritans offers 24X7 listening support by phoning 116 123 in NI / RoI
Therapy / Supports after Abortion
Given the stress by definition of a crisis pregnancy, many women report an understandable feeling of relief after abortion. Others however can become actively distressed immediately, or decades later - we call this distress "Post Abortion Regret" and it can be very disabling. See Belfast Telegraph news article here.
- For those who do have significant regret and distress post abortion, we offer therapy. Therapy can begin at a general level by learning basic coping strategies via 1-1 CBT OR our low-cost/FREE community Stress Busters courses. Once feeling stronger/better, more in-depth and pregnancy-loss-specific CBT support can be accessed in confidence. (See also other supports as needed incl your own GP.)
- For those who do NOT report post-abortion regret or distress we are keen to understand why given the potential for transferability of insights and coping skills to others who are struggling; please talk to us in confidence.
We find that those who have completed our Stress Busters course, will need fewer 1-1 sessions. Equally, many prefer confidential 1-1 CBT support from the beginning.