On Saturday 8th March we hosted our first ever International Women’s Day event. The idea was to bring our community together to celebrate women, to raise women up and empower all of us to raise and use our voice. “My Voice Matters.”
We attend lots of events aimed at women that focus on the negative aspects of being a woman in a man’s world and we often leave these events feeling fed up and angry. We wanted to create an event that did the opposite – to celebrate the successes of women in our community, showing what we can do, what we’re capable of and leaving people feeling inspired and empowered to use their voice for positive action and more. We wanted to create an uplifting space for women to come together in a safe, happy and creative environment. And that is what our event did!
“So important to feel heard and share ideas.”
“Been such a brilliant day – everything. Thank you so much.”
“Nice to chill and relax.”
“Wouldn’t it be good for these to happen more often, a chance for women to get together and just talk. No task, just coming together. The café space is great.”
People were welcomed to the event at Holmfirth Tech with a beautiful bunch of blooms from Daffs Florals, creating smiles as soon as people walked through the door. The café space was transformed into a hive of creativity with letter writing alongside Give a Few Words and Curious Creative Club, crochet and crafting with Cicely Rae, and a wonderful ‘Birds & Flowers’ exhibition from Holmfirth artist helenrobinsonart. An array of cakes and brews were available thanks to our brilliant volunteer bakers and generous donations from Holmfirth Coop. Lots of people chose to stay in the sunshine of the creative café, chatting to friends, meeting new people, and sharing ideas of how ‘My Voice Matters’ could be bigger and better on International Women’s Day 2026. But we also hosted two incredible workshops throughout the afternoon. First up was a ‘Stay Safe’ workshop from Freedom Personal which included some simple but effective self-defence techniques in the interactive session. People got the chance to learn and practice the techniques in an empowering and fun session which led to guests discovering their physical and emotional strength.
“Super informative and empowering, I now feel free to use my voice as power.”
“Freedom Personal Safety workshop was brilliant. I hope I am never called to use it, but useful.”
“The self-defence was brilliant – I feel powerful now.”
We were thrilled that award winning poet Rose Condo was able to join our event too. Her ‘Write to Your Voice’ creative writing workshop connected women of all ages with their voice and the important / inspiring / imaginative things we all have to share. “I was incredibly impressed that everyone took part in the writing and read out at least one bit of writing that they did. I made mini zine booklets for each person to use, which gave them something to take away and – hopefully – encourage them to write more in their daily lives” Rose Condo.
“I was encouraging my daughter to do this [poetry workshop] but I’ve surprised myself. It’s made me think that actually, I can do it.”
“Poetry workshop was led so well and felt at ease with taking part.”
“It was very therapeutic. Loved it.I didn’t know anything about poetry beforehand, but everyone has been so unique.”
We received funding from One Community Foundation to put ‘My Voice Matters’ together as a pilot event for International Women’s Day 2025, so were keen to hear what people thought. Pens and paper were placed around the room for comments, suggestions and ideas, and these will be used so support further funding applications. It has been very rewarding for us to read the feedback from the event, and know that we successfully created a celebration event within our community for people to feel empowered. We couldn’t have done it without our team of amazing volunteers, we are super grateful to you all. We loved having the opportunity to bring women together to raise, share, use, their voice. It is so very important: empowered women, empower women.
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