Job Fair Event
Inspired Sisters organised three jobs fairs in 2008 attracting numerous visitors in search of employment. The event was held in order to promote business employers and to help clients in the BME community get into employment as well as boost their confidence in their job search skills. In March 2008 the event was held at the Pakistani Community centre, and in October it was in Longsight and Cheetham Hill. The employers who participated in the event included;

• Manchester City Council
• Manchester Primary Care Trust
• O.M.B.C
• Premier care Group
• Local Solutions
• Imperial War Museum North
• Royal Mail
• The Indian Ocean Restaurants
• Taxi Academy
• Stepping Stones
• Greater Manchester Police
• Blue Orchid

Most of these employers encouraged community employment, especially voluntary work, thus it was great to have them come and motivate jobseekers in the right direction.

In order to assess the effectiveness of the event, feedback and analysis forms were distributed. Perhaps the most noticeable observation about the Jobs Fair was the diversity of employers and jobseekers. Inspired Sisters was pleased to report that the jobs fair attracted attendees from across a variety of racial and ethnic groups, genders, ages, and people from different levels of education and experiences. Events such as Job ’s Fair not only promote local business employers but allow clients to boost their confidence in job search and start employment or voluntary work, which is a bridge towards employment. You can come into our office where you will find enthusiastic members of staff willing to find employment that’s right for you.

We follow up with employers and clients who show interest in jobs at the fair. Clients are invited back in to help support them with job application forms as well as mini interviews which are organised with employers at Inspired Sisters.

The IS ‘Get Pampered’ Day
Held as part of the Adult Learners Week in May 2003, over 80 women attended this event. Which was run within the IT Suite of Northmoor Community Centre in Longsight. Many of the ladies took up the offer of free sessions with one of the professional therapists who were there to show off the techniques and benefits. The Job centre Action team were also present, providing information & guidance about employment and benefits. The food was an absolute delight, and our apologies once again, to all our non-female friends and colleagues who missed out!

Inspired Sisters 1st Coffee Morning
Our first Coffee Morning Presentation was held on the 27th March 2003. This was hugely successful and prompted several follow up presentations, including many in Arabic.

These are now scheduled weekly throughout 2004 / 2005. Coffee Mornings are very popular, with around 20 - 30 people attending each one. They’re a great way of updating our existing and new members about our services and future plans whilst also encouraging them to interact and discuss issues, make new friends; learn about different cultures, and, of course, try some of the mouth watering foods and snacks!

Trip to Tatton Park
Inspired Sisters organised their first family trip to Tatton Park on Sunday the 8th of August in conjunction with Foundations, Green Crescent and Heaton Muslim Community trust. Tatton Park is situated in Knutsford, in the beautiful County of Cheshire.

The Park is several square miles in area and has numerous attractions for all the family. It is rich in wildlife and has herds of Fallow and Red deer roaming within the fields. Also the large lakes attract numerous wildfowl such as swans, ducks and geese. The Park has several recreational areas such as, children’s adventure play ground, car show, gardens, traditional shops and a bar-b-q area situated adjacent to the lake. It was at this beautiful location that Zee and Fajer decided to set the barbeque where the food was perfectly cooked and consumed. The weather was excellent and as a result, all the visitors enjoyed themselves and especially the children who had endless fun. Everyone had a fantastic time as you can see by the photo’s. We will be arranging another one soon, if you want more details about the next trip please contact us. Everyone’s welcome.

Cultural Awareness Day
Inspired Sisters had their first cultural awareness day on the 12th of August. The day was funded by Voluntary Action Manchester. The day gave us a chance to celebrate diversity and highlight the richness in our culture. The day consisted of food, fashion and fun from around the world. Ladies organized stalls from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Libya, Morocco and Britain. They displayed different items such as cultural clothing, shoes, utensils, food etc. The day proved to be very successful and we were overwhelmed with the amount of ladies who attended and became part of such a exciting day. We are now looking to organized another Cultural Awareness Day on a bigger scale. If you would like to participate in any way please pop in the centre or just ring us to discuss your plans. To everyone who came “A big thank you for all your support and help especially ladies who organized stalls and who participated in the fashion show”.

Health Awareness Day

The day was organised in conjunction with NHS to promote healthy living. There were nutritionists and doctors available to give specialist advice on healthy eating.

Others found it useful especially as a lot of information was available on what food can be given to children. They also explained how hazardous junk food can be.We also consulted our members on other health related issues and what we can do to overcome that. As a result, we have planned more health awareness days and seminars.

Consultation Day
To support Jobcentre Plus and Agenda 2010 objectives it was decided to run a Consultation Day on the 12th September 04. The aim of the day was to identify barriers and create an environment that was conducive to women voicing their opinion, for them to be heard and for information on the barriers to employment and training to be identified.

As part of the planning process, a Consultation Steering Group consisting of representatives from Manchester City Council, Progress Trust and FAST was set up.

There were other desired outcomes, which were:
To promote local Jobcentre plus offices and services
To promote Sure Start and Connexions services
To promote local employers job vacancies

The Consultation Day provided good evidence to highlight why the 16% unemployment gap has remained the same for a number of years. Firstly, it is accepted that services are more effective when the people they affect are consulted or involved in decision-making. Secondly, without involvement, communities feel that they are not listened to.

These outputs have been achieved and further actions have been taken to support this. For further details or detailed report please contact the centre.

Longisht Asian Women’s Environment
and Well-being Day
Inspired Sisters aims to make Longsight an even better place to live. As part of this we organised an Environmental day with Longsight Street Environment Manager.

The event took place on the 10th of February 2005.

The day included:
Information on how every one can help improve local environment including:

100 days 2005 – Challenge Manchester.
Community Guardian Scheme.
Britain in Bloom.

Environmental advice from street environment manager. To encourage the community to participate we also offered:

Free seeds packs
Free refreshments
Free health advice
Free benefit advice
Free pampering sessions
Free raffle

Over 100 local women attended the day. This enabled us to collect a lot of feedback and as a result we started streets cleanup by at end of April in partnerships with Manchester City Council.

This included cleaning rubbish from the streets, planting new flowers. Manchester City Council also gave away free flower hanging baskets.

If you are interested in making you street look better then please contact us on 0161 224 9090 or just pop in the centre for more details.