Holding Fast: Values, Women, and the Power of Unity - Strategy 2025-28
Every strategy starts with a story. Here’s Jeanie, Head of Service for CoLab Women, with hers…
“It’s alright for you, sticking up for THESE WOMEN – they made their choices!”
I was reminded of conversations like this as I read through our new CoLab strategy, reflecting on my 10 years here and the changes we’ve faced locally and globally.
When I first heard about CoLab, it sounded like a bold new idea for Exeter—bringing people together, trying new approaches, creating possibilities. At that time, a third of rough sleepers locally were women, and balancing ambition with reality felt daunting but possible. Since then, we’ve lived through austerity, a pandemic, a housing crisis—constantly adapting to meet the needs of those with the least voice and the biggest barriers to support.
In the early days, someone dismissed us as “fluffy.” Yet as one of the few organisations that stayed open through the first lockdown, I knew that label was long gone. We held fast. We still do—living our values of compassion, welcome, collaboration, ambition and social justice.
But values don’t just exist; they’re built—through relationships, trust, and mutual respect. At CoLab we call it “making salad, not soup”: keeping each partner’s unique contribution while blending when needed so everyone who comes through our doors gets the best response.
I came from children’s services, and it was a shock to see how an 18th birthday could abruptly end vital support—especially for women. Too often I heard “these women” dismissed as “others,” contrasted with equally unhelpful labels of “angels.” Both strip away identity and possibility.
That’s why we’ve always said: “Come in as you. Leave the labels at the door. Let’s work with you, your life, and your future.”
Audre Lorde put it best: “There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.” At CoLab we embrace this by providing holistic, wraparound support. With 30 agencies working together, we weave a net strong enough to hold and lift people up.
Our next chapter is The Liberty Centre—a women’s centre for Exeter. Guided by our values, it will be both sanctuary and springboard, a place of safety and ambition. We’ll keep campaigning, raising awareness, and amplifying lived experience so that the system listens and changes.
Because in 2024, a third of those sleeping rough locally are still women. We’ve come far, but there is still so much to do. Our strength lies in our unity, our values, and most of all, in each other.
Hope grows when it’s shared. If this story gives you hope, pass it on.
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