History of the group
The current SOFFA group was originally set up by volunteers and supported by the charity Gender Matters then based in Compton, Wolverhampton.
Although long in the planning, the first meeting was held in December 2012 and has been held monthly (with the exception of August and December) ever since, firstly at the Compton venue and latterly at various locations around the region.
The group is well attended, and though the original volunteers remain the core driving force behind the onward changes, attendance is consistent and the need for the group is evident from the comments of those who attend and the distances travelled to get to the meetings.
Future plans
After the Gender Matters project at Compton came to an end in July 2014, there were several plans for the SOFFA Marmalade group that we needed to address; clearly it was necessary to continue but in what form and where?
The way forward involved a number of tasks:
- Finding new locations
- Developing new promotional materials
- Seeking funding to become independent
- Opening a bank account to allow for funding applications to be processed
- Building a website/facebook page/email accounts
- Agreeing phone numbers and staffing of those numbers
At the time of developing this website many of these task were under consideration or actively being pursued; some have since been accomplished:as further developments occur they will be updated on the blog or directly to the members as appropriate.
