2025 Aspire Highlights!
Take a look at some of Aspire’s 2025 highlights!
1. International Women’s Day
The theme for 2025 was Accelerate Action which emphasised the importance of taking swift and decisive steps to achieve gender equality. The campaign called for increased momentum and urgency in addressing the systemic barriers and biases that women face, both in personal and professional spheres. One of the best ways to forge gender equality is to understand what works and to do more of this, faster. Significant barriers to gender equality remain, yet with the right action and support, positive progress can be made for women everywhere. At Aspire, we participated in the International Women’s Day celebrations with our IWD Brunch and Beamish suffragette march!
2. Supporting Sisters Volunteers
This year we have had our biggest intake of Supporting Sisters Volunteers since the pandemic and it has been great to see so many complete their Level 1 and Level 2 Training! Our volunteers have given 6504 hours of volunteering this year!
3. Represent Women launch event
Aspire were pleased to attend the Represent Women launch event in Durham and be Steering Group members! Represent Women are a courageous, collaborative and committed voice for the women and girls sector in the North East. They provide an independent advocacy voice for the by-and-for women’s sector and add value to the work of individual organisations and networks. They also aim to influence and inform decision makers with an evidence-based approach to improve women and girls lives. Represent Women also aims to take every opportunity to increase funding for women’s organisations in our region.
4. Mental Health Awareness Week
The theme for 2025 was ‘Community’ since being a part of a community is vital for our mental health and wellbeing. We thrive when we have strong connections with others and supportive communities around us. We celebrated our Aspire community that supports us to protect and nurture good mental health! We hosted a World Mental Health day Breakfast Club and participated in wearing green!
5. Our very first Aspire fashion show in collaboration with County Durham Age UK
The fashion show was a new venture for Aspire, celebrating diversity in women and fashion, with all of our models being Aspire women. The clothing which was modelled was kindly provided by County Durham Age UK. (Shoutout to Jules Brooks for taking photographs!)
6. Volunteers Week 2025
From the 2nd-8th June Aspire joined thousands of other organisations across the UK in celebrating our amazing volunteers who selflessly give their time and energy to help others. At Aspire, our volunteers are crucial in enabling the continued support of women in our local area. Aspire staff hosted a volunteer celebration party for all of our wonderful volunteers. Our staff provided table service with a smile whilst our volunteers enjoyed an afternoon tea!
7. Gardening award
Aspire’s yarden (yard/garden!) was entered into the Chester-le-Street In Bloom Competition this year. Our fantastic gardening group did an amazing job preparing the yarden and have given up their time and energy over the past year creating this wonderful space for our women. Our crèche children also helped to decorate our door and windows! The hard work paid off because Aspire won the ‘Blooming Fabulous Front’ award!!! Some of our women were invited to Lumley Castle to be presented with their award and celebrate their achievement! This award makes Aspire a winner in the Chester-le-Street In Bloom competition for the second year in a row as last year Aspire won both the ‘People’s Choice Award’ and the ‘Blooming Good Fun Award’!
8. Summer Celebration Afternoon Tea
We had our summer celebration at Chester-le-Street Cricket Club. We enjoyed afternoon tea together, won various prizes on the raffle and tombola, competed in a quiz, and played stand-up bingo! It was a lovely afternoon celebrating the work of Aspire over the past year in our local community and thanking our amazing staff, volunteers and funders for their continued support to allow the work of Aspire to continue. We had 64 Aspire women attend the afternoon tea, which created a wonderful atmosphere as we celebrated together. It was a great opportunity for our women to chat and get to know each other, as we had both women who were new to Aspire and those who have been coming along for years, all celebrating together.
9. Market Activity Week
We were pleased to participate in Chester-le-Street Market Activity Week! We were there with a tombola stall especially aimed at children with prizes ranging from cuddly toys, books and children’s games. Thank you to everyone who came along to support us and say hello. Also a well done to all of our tombola winners! It was great to join in with the community activities and meet local women in our area!
10. Stamp It Out Celebration Event
Aspire attended the Stamp It Out celebration event where Kay spoke on behalf of Aspire about the work that our Aspire Stamp It Out ambassadors and trainers are involved in to carry out the good work of Stamp It Out in County Durham
11. Great North Run
Our wonderful volunteer Karen ran the Great North Run for Aspire, raising over £300! We want to say a HUGE well done to Karen for her months of training, hard work and determination for running 13.1 miles to raise money and allow Aspire to continue supporting local women!
12. World Mental Health Day
Aspire celebrated World Mental Health Day by hosting a themed brunch for all of our Aspire women! World Mental Health Day is an opportunity for us all to talk about mental health and consider how, together, we can help everyone have better mental health. This year’s theme was ‘access to services - mental health in catastrophes and emergencies’. The theme highlighted the importance of people being able to protect their mental health whatever they are going through, because everyone deserves good mental health.
13. Donations
We have received so many generous donations over the past year which we are hugely grateful for! All donations help to stock our Welcome Space and Support Room with basic items for our women to access!
14. White Ribbon Day 2025 and 16 Days of Activism
Aspire recognised White Ribbon Day with a themed breakfast club and 16 days of activism raising awareness of the kinds of violence that women and girls face. The theme for 2025 was ‘We Speak Up’. Letting sexism slide puts women and girls at risk. Sexist jokes, catcalling, staring, and comments might seem harmless, but they are serious because they can lead to violence and abuse. Lots of people see crimes like sexual assault or harassment as extreme and isolated incidents that have nothing to do with their daily lives. The truth is that even the smallest of every day actions count to make a difference to stop them from happening. By simply not passing off sexist ‘jokes’, catcalling or staring, you can help stop behaviour that can lead to serious violence.
15. Christmas Celebration Afternoon Tea
We ended an amazing year with our Christmas Celebration Afternoon Tea! This was an opportunity to celebrate our amazing staff, volunteers, Aspire women and funders for everything they do to make Aspire the wonderful place that it is! We had delicious food, a Christmas quiz, raffle and tombola!
Here’s to another fantastic year in 2026! 🎉