Supporting Women Across Lancashire

Our History

LW was established in 1985 in Blackburn by a group of women who were concerned by the high child mortality rates and the poor maternal health outcomes for women in the city.  A house was bought by the group and set up as Lancashire Women’s Centre. 

With over four decades of experience, Lancashire Women work from our mainly women centres to provide safe, dedicated space for women across the county. We bring together a number of services under one roof- all designed to support women who at any one time may be dealing with a range of issues including: social isolation and exclusion, homelessness, poverty, mental ill-health, or offending behaviour. Our services are available to all women, but in particular we work with those who find themselves in situations which can increase their vulnerability or place them at significant risk of harm – and who are often facing multiple and complex needs. Our delivery draws upon three decades of practical experience in supporting women, and is an approach recognised nationally for its effectiveness and impact.

What We Do

We offer a whole person approach to supporting women which is trauma informed and can be accessed directly by women themselves and / or through a referral: 

We can help with: 

• Mental health issues and general health and well-being 
• Money Advice / Debt and wider welfare support issues 
• Getting into employment with coaching, skills development and confidence building 
• We also work in the prevention and rehabilitation of women connected to the criminal justice system with expertise in addressing multiple and complex unmet needs of women who have been moved from pillar to post across services and agencies.

Our values

We believe our values need to be translated from the ideals we profess into tangible behaviours which can be operationalised and measured. This way, our teams know and understand how best we can achieve the outcomes and change for the women we work with. Our commitment is to ensure everyone in LW knows and understand the part they have to play and how they can bring our values into their work.

Empower : We work to build on the strengths that all women have, so that they can become more confident; especially in controlling their own life and claiming their rights.
Non-judgemental: We accept each woman exactly as they are and genuinely make no moral judgement about their situation.
Creative: Creative in our approach to supporting women and seeking solutions with them for the challenges.
Collaborative: We know we learn more and can achieve more when we work together.
Honest: We try to be real with all the women we work with so they can have choices about their lives, knowing that they will need courage to make changes that will benefit them and those around them.