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.
Women Helping Other Women (WHOW): Crisis Pregnancies
At The I Can Centre™ 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, e.g. before the abortion the foetus is alive but afterward he/she is not. Instead, we raise the bar so that all young are welcomed, celebrated and resourced- by both parents, our politicians and/or the wider local community.
We are also concerned with the divisive and disempowering "cant" language around abortion. Women in fact are strong and gutsy, and we CAN juggle parenting with other interests and commitments to have a great future; and once resources and supports are in place (see some of those listed here with more to follow from our women-helping-other-women (WHOW) subgroup)
- New WHOW members are most welcome. Do consider joining WHOW for respectful learning and collaboration towards supporting and enabling young women in crisis pregnancies and their families. Because #WomenDeserveBetter!
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 but help is available. 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.
* Our vision is that young women become so confident and so well resourced and supported that "crisis pregnancy" becomes a thing of the past.
Therapy / Practical Supports
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 Mums a growing range of supports to help them and their young 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
We collect quality, children's items that our clients no longer need, e.g. toys and clothing. These are then redistributed via community organisations to help lone parents. These items do 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 suppor
Great Badges .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 we hope will follow shortly and asap.
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 jobsand 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 towards "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 goods will act as reminders and reinforcement for kindness across all community groups; 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.