Boston Belles
Year 2008
In addition to our participation in many community committees and projects
such as Boston Community Showcase, Lincolnshire Pride, Lincolnshire Kaleidoscope, Lincolnshire Compact and the Independent
Police Advisory Group, our own work continues, at a pace, with ever increasing demands upon all side of our services.
Attendances at our Social Support evenings at Brothetoft
are steady, but we are still striving to improve the attendance, so as
to ensure that we are sustainable, as there is an ever-increasing
demand for our confidential support services,
whether it is over the telephone, by e-mail or face-to-face meetings.
Also for our training and education services, which are in greater
demand now and take up quite a lot of additional time and resources?
Our
financial stability has improved, due mainly to our own fundraising
efforts at Public Events and some generosity by some funding
organisations, also the raffles at our social support evenings. We have
now acquired a trailer to take our stuff to public events together with
the use of a laptop computer, A new Banner & Screen stand, on which
to project presentations. New “Information
Centre” display boards and also a set of very professional looking new lightweight display boards, so that
we can be very professional in the marketing of our services for now and future years.
The Year 0f 2008
The year got under way well and in January, we
had a good evening at Brothertoft, quite a demand for support visits
and a number of projects for the year were got under way in the various
committees. Also Belinda attended a training course on Media Training.
February
started with committee meetings and the Belinda & Joanne had their
42 nd wedding anniversary party to which the Boston Belles were all
invited, and as they say “a good time was had by all”. Again, a good
evening at Brothertoft, and on the 14th there was an “alternative
Valentines Night”
at The Collection in Lincoln with the County Council and Lincolnshire
Kaleidoscope playing their part, It was a really great event which I am
sure will be repeated if possible. Also during the month Belinda was
asked to undertake some filming about the Boston Belles and the part,
which the group played in the local community and society in general,
for a television company, who are promoting the voluntary sectors
efforts in Community Cohesion.
Also during February,
Belinda and Tricia carried out some publicity photo shoots for various
organisations that had kindly donated to the Boston Belles. And those
that had also provided services to the Boston Belles.
March really got under way with a bang as we were invited
to take part in a community Cohesion, All Day Event in Boston.
This was the day our brand new display boards had their christening,
and we received a great number of compliments on how professional we
are in our Public Face, we had an enormous number of enquires about who
we are and what we do and also a number if invitations to give talks
and act as consultative partners in many organisations. During the
afternoon, Belinda gave a presentation to an audience of well over a
hundred people from all walks of life, which was well received and
considered very informative to those that know little about us.
During March requests were received, which resulted in support visits being carried out at one of Her
Majesty’s Prisons,
where we have support protocols in place. The March evening was a great
success with quite a few new attendees. Also the committee met to
discuss the plans for Pride this year in July and also for Showcase on
14th
September. Belinda and Joanne attending some formal training on
organisational procedures and Stacey and Belinda will be doing another
course in May to enhance their knowledge of running a community group
in today economic climate.
April, Started well with attendance at the Showcase Partnership meeting to get this years project under way, followed by a meeting
for the Lincolnshire compact at Lincoln.
Quite a number of support meetings, face to face were also made and
carried out in April. The monthly support evening for April went very
well, with some new attendees from as far a field as Fife in Scotland
as well as some from closer to home. Also this month the meeting of the
strategic IAG was held at Sleaford and has taken up quite a lot of time
as there is a second meeting this month. On April 21 Stacy and Belinda
again carried out a training session with the latest batch of new police recruits at Boston
Police Station.
Quickly followed by attendance the next day with the full partnership
assembly of the Boston Area Partnership. April ended on quite a high as
following a community event at Morton Hall Prison just out of Lincoln; we were able to set up another support protocol for any Transgendered
inmates with the prison officials, bringing the number now set up, to three.
May
In May, Belinda & Joanne underwent some more training in effective group management. Also undertook to represent
the Boston Belles in the Criminal Justice Board training
day, which was held at Nettleham, Police Headquarters.
Belinda
undertook some meetings with the Probation Service and also with the
Assistant Chief constable, Peter Davies regarding many matters
pertaining to the Transgendered Community and other minority
communities.
June.
This
month was rather blighted in as much that it was the month that Joanne
was diagnosed with breast cancer and would be undergoing surgery in
July. Our social evening was a bit quieter this month due to holidays
and the constant rising in fuel price which is having an effect on
attendance as we are such a rural area.
There was a lot of work connected with Lincolnshire Kaleidoscope preparing for the AGM and also work with the Police relating to seeking to prevent possible
Incitement to homophobic & transphobic hate crime.
July.
The normal monthly meetings occurred and our Social Support evening
was a bit muted by holidays, and also Joanne had undergone the surgery
for Breast Cancer and was recovering from the surgery, towards the end
of the month the report from the surgeon was good news in as much as
all the cancer had been removed with the surgery and the only further
treatment required was a drug therapy to prevent re-occurrence, this to
last five years. Lincolnshire Pride was postponed as there was
insufficient funding to run it.
August, This proved a very busy month, there was a very good social support evening and a number of new members attended. Our
services were called upon from two different establishments of HM Prison service
to which we were able to respond and provide some support to the
inmates. Work was still going on with the Police service to seek a
satisfactory outcome to the various harassments that are being
reported, this will be ongoing and hopefully will cumulate in a policy
being agreed to prevent these happenings in the future.
September, this month saw our attendance at the Third
Boston Community Showcase Event in the Central Park,
where we were fund-raising and carrying our message to the public at
large, that we are individuals to be valued for our diversity, in
helping to make the community more inclusive. Our social support evening was preceded by our AGM
at which the committee were unanimously re-elected to serve. This was
followed by our Fourth Birthday evening, which was appreciated by all,
with attendees from far a field as well as our loyal core members.
October
started with a few individual support
meetings, as part of our Confidential Support Service. We were also represented on the Hate Crime Scrutiny Panel of
the Lincolnshire Criminal Justice Board, and attended our first panel meeting. Our
50th
Social
Support Evening was really well
attended and enjoyed so we are told by everyone, who enjoyed the Golden theme to our evening and sampled the really
lovely Golden Cake which was baked especially, for the occasion by one of our members.
Our presence on the Independent Advisory group has assisted the re-formation of one of the groups that was somewhat
waning and contributed to the drive that the IAG is having for new members to be Critical Friends to the Police Service
in Lincolnshire. A
number of other meetings were carried out with the Public sector on
consultation policies. Also Belinda and Joanne were invited to the Community Day at
Police Headquarters, hosted by Assistant Chief constable Elaine Hill,
which proved very interesting and informative, and gave us the chance
to put forward the needs of the transgendered community so as to be
considered in their overall policing plans and not be forgotten. The
month concluded with some further support 1-2-1 meetings and then attendance at the regular meeting
of the Lincolnshire Compact.
November.
Then
month began with our attendance at the A.G.M of the South Lincolnshire
C.V.S, where Joanne, Stacey and Tricia received a Certificate of
Appreciation for the work that the Boston Belles do in the community,
from the Mayor of Boston.
During the month a number of support cases were helped and of course our social evening was held, being our 51st.
At the end of the month Joanne and Belinda attended the National
Conference of the Independent Advisory Groups at Middlesbrough, where
we undertook some training workshops and met some interesting people
including Sir Ronnie Flanagan and the Chief Constable of Devon and
Cornwall, Steve Otter with whom we had a very interesting discussion
about the way the Transgendered Community are beginning to be
appreciated for the individuals that they are! We also had
a great deal of input to the session where the Deputy Chief Constable of Lancashire,
who is tasked with the job of setting up a National Association of
Transgenderd Police staff. The last day of the month saw us at Kirton
Town Hall Christmas Fayre with our Display Boards, Hand Crafted Cards
and a Tombola, to raise some funding for the group, whilst the Credit
crunch did have a noticeable effect we did raise a small amount of
funding so it was well worth our attending and quite a lot of people
now know that we exist!
December. This
was the usual busy month; there was of course our Christmas Party at
Brothertoft, which was attended by 40, who all seemed to enjoy
themselves. There was a lovely Christmas cake baked by our lovely
Edwina, the Make-up trolley was won by Gwen and the raffle, with 21
prizes, went down a treat wit all attending. For the first time we also
did a Secret Santa, which again was very well received by all.
The
month produced quite a lot of call on our support services, both Face
to Face meetings, and by e-mail from far and wide. A number of other
meetings were attended and we are all looking forward to a great 2009.
So
in closing this brief report of what we have been up to in 2008, I
would like to thank all the committee members, Joanne, Stacey and
Tricia without whose efforts we wouldn’t exist and especially Edwina
and Ann for all the help they give at our evenings.
Your Committee would like to wish you a really great 2009 and we hope to see all of you and your friends in
2009 at our Brothertoft evenings.
Love to you all
Belinda XX
