Central Coast: A collective voice

Deepwater Older Women’s Network (OWN) in Woy Woy was launched in May 2012 from a desire to create a warm, vibrant, safe, contemporary and comfortable space where the voices of older women in the community were central and the collective voice carried actual weight.

The Woy Woy group comes under the banner of OWN NSW, which was established to uphold the rights, dignity and wellbeing of older women in the community. Deepwater OWN Woy Woy brings together a group of intelligent, humorous and dynamic women who value diversity. Members are encouraged to contribute to the development of a shared vision.

In 2017, they started to run fundraising events for the Kariong Women’s Refuge and embarked on a program of promoting themselves in the community. It was a great success and the members enjoyed donating and participating in high teas with their friends, while raising funds to assist women and children who were the victims of domestic and family violence.

Membership increased three-fold and Woy Woy OWN is now the largest branch on the Central Coast. While fundraising was paused during COVID-19 lockdowns, the group still managed to donate non-perishable food, toys, beanies, scarves, clothing and shoes to the homeless, through the Central Coast Disaster Relief and Mary Mac’s Place.

Fundraising in the new year will see donations to Allawah House, a project of AHOW (Action on Housing for Older Women), women’s health centres, Coast Shelter and Refuges. The SHOW (Share Housing for Older Women) was formed from the AHOW group to facilitate shared housing for older women who find it hard to financially afford rentals on their own.

For further information please call Jennifer Brown (Secretary) on 0417 205 377 or email: jennib35@gmail.com.