Additional Dates for the Diary - Feb 2011

Kind offer from East End WI

As a fellow WI member (East End WI) I wanted to pass on some details about a free  event we are organising which I think your members might be interested in. All the  lectures in this lecture series are free and open to all and it is a quality line  up of speakers and events. Not often you get things like this for free in London!

I have pasted in some text below which should give people all the information they  need and I hope you would be happy to forward this on to your members. Tickets are  available online right now. Please feel free to get in touch if you have any  questions!


LSE Space for Thought Literary Festival: Crossing Borders, Wednesday 16 - Saturday  19 February 2011
Tickets are now available for the LSE Literary Festival 2011: Crossing Borders,  which will be taking place from Wednesday 16 - Saturday 19 February.  The  programme of events is designed to cross disciplinary, international and  metaphorical borders, exploring the interaction between the arts and social  sciences.  All events are free and open to all, but a ticket must be booked  online.
http://www2.lse.ac.uk/publicEvents/spaceForThought/LiteraryFestival2011/Home.aspx
Speakers at the Festival include sci-fi author Ken McLeod, legendary actor Ron  Moody, cartoonist Steve Bell, historian Laurence Rees and journalist Jill  McGivering as well as award-winning and best-selling writers Blake Morrison, John  Gray, Lionel Shriver, Elif Shafak and Geoff Dyer and former poet-laureate Andrew  Motion.
This event was made possible by the support of the LSE Annual Fund, Garanti Bank  and Michael Uva. 
Ticket Information:  http://www2.lse.ac.uk/publicEvents/spaceForThought/LiteraryFestival2011/TicketInfo rmation.aspx

Best wishes Veronika

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Another music concert we have been emailed about

Just wanted to let all music lovers know about a  fantastic concert
http://www.msf.org.uk/events.aspx

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Yazmin from Bake With Me wants to come to the Feb meeting to talk about Bake with  me.

This year we are hoping to launch a new nationwide fundraising event called Bake  with Me and I wondered if I could come along to your next Women's Institute  meeting and maybe speak to a small group of approx 8 people to ask their opinions  on our new event?

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Go to a not to be broadcast tv pilot in Chelsea on Monday 21st Feb

Well known TV production company are making a not-for-broadcast television pilot about Life Coaches where top Motivational Experts mentor undiscovered talent in the industry.
On Monday 21 February there will be an exciting motivational session taking place, led by the experts and the up and coming professionals. We are looking for people who would be interested in coming along to be part of the audience and get inspired!
The filming will take place in Chelsea, in London, between 11:45 and 1:15pm.

As we do have a limited number of places for this exclusive event anyone interested in coming along needs to email mia.lane@endemoluk.com for a place on the guest list and the details of the location.

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Our Save Our Forests campaign is creating a national sensation! We now have nearly  half a million signatures on our petition -- that's more than the population of  Liverpool. [1]

That’s because we understand something the government doesn’t: our natural forests  are priceless, and once they’re gone - they’re gone forever.

Our campaign is already all over the news and politicians are getting increasingly  nervous. That’s why the most important thing we can do right now is spread the  word and ensure our petition continues to grow as quickly as possible. [2]

Please forward this email to your friends and ask them to sign. All they have to  do is click on the link and add their names:
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/save-our-forests

Government ministers are trying to distract us with warm and fuzzy words about how  much they love the forests. They've announced a "consultation" on how we'd like  our forests sold off - even though they already know most of us don't want them  sold off at all!

Even before this so-called consultation finishes they're busy trying to change the  laws that currently protect public forests. This is blatantly clearing the way for  a massive sell-off. What kind of consultation is that?

Don’t let them get away with it - tell everyone you know about our campaign right  now.
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/save-our-forests

If they want a consultation, here it is: 38 Degrees members chipped in to fund a  national opinion poll which proved that 84% of the public want our forests kept in  public hands for future generations.

Places like the Forest of Dean, the New Forest, Grizedale, Thetford, and Alice  Holt are national treasures. We don’t want the natural places that belong to  future generations flogged off for a quick cash grab today. But if we don’t rally  together now, we may not have a choice.

Our petition already has over 470,000 names on it, including yours. Can you help  us get to 500,000? Please forward this email and ask your friends to add their  name:
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/save-our-forests

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This month’s body confidence message (We had a most interesting debate last summer about Body Image and its presentation in the media and we have a campaigning committee who are passionate about this subject.)

From now on, every month we’ll be sharing a body confidence message in this  newsletter – sent in by you, our supporters. This could be a top tip for feeling  good about yourself, an experience you’d like to share or an interesting fact.

To get the ball rolling, this month’s message comes from Lynn Crilly:
“Learning to like and accept yourself for who you are and not who you think you  should be will give you an inner strength, enabling you to follow your dreams and  aspirations to the best of your ability"

Want to see your message in next month’s newsletter? Send your thoughts to  info@bodyconfidence.org.uk

The Centre for Appearance Research joins the Campaign for Body Confidence

We are very pleased to welcome the Centre for Appearance Research (CAR) to the  Campaign’s steering group! CAR is based at the University of the West of England,  Bristol, focusing on psychological and interdisciplinary research into appearance,  disfigurement and body image.

At present CAR are working with our campaign partners Central YMCA on a study into  the impact of airbrushing and labelling on body image – watch this space for their  findings!

For more info on CAR’s work, see their website – www.hls.uwe.ac.uk/research/car

Endangered Species unveils ad campaign

Susie Orbach’s Endangered Species London summit is coming to the Southbank Centre  on March 4th. It will be accompanied by events around the world celebrating body  diversity and challenging the culture that teaches women and girls to dislike  their own bodies.

To launch the summit, Endangered Species invited advertising and creative agencies  from around the UK to submit ideas for its billboard campaign. The winning entry,  by Manchester’s Red C agency, has just been unveiled and you can look out for it  at 11 sites across the capital over the next month. You can also see it here -  www.endangeredspecieswomen.org.uk/media

For more info about Endangered Species see the website -  www.endangeredspecieswomen.org.uk

All Walks present ‘Snapped’ at the National Portrait Gallery

All Walks Beyond the Catwalk are celebrating fashion, beauty and diversity at the  National Portrait Gallery this Friday, 11th February. From 6-10pm All Walks will  be curating an evening of exciting events surrounding the question, ‘has fashion  become the lens by which we evaluate identity today?’.

All Walks will be taking participants on a photographic trail through nine new  Rankin portraits created by AW and major fashion designers (including Stella  McCartney and Vivienne Westwood) using a diversity of models. There will also be  life drawing and fashion illustration masterclasses, casting for a live portrait  shoot, interactive artworks by Josephine Chime and a debate between Lorraine Candy  (Editor, Elle), Lynne Featherstone (Minister for Equalities), Linda Papadopoulos  (psychologist) and Erin O’Connor (model and co-founder, AW).

The event is free and all are welcome to attend – see attached flyer and for more  information visit - www.npg.org.uk/whatson/late-shift/late-shift-extra-snapped

All-Party Parliamentary Group on Body Image

As part of the Campaign for Body Confidence, in the next few months we will be  establishing a cross-party interest group for MPs on Body Image – known as an All -Party Parliamentary Group (APPG). The APPG on Body Image will build support  across all the political parties for the body confidence agenda and as a future  project may conduct an inquiry into the causes, consequences and possible  solutions in combating body image anxiety.

A number of MPs have already said that they would like to play an active role in  the group – including Jo Swinson, Caroline Nokes and Mary Glindon. However, the  more members the better, and we’d love to hear from your MP – so we’ve created an  email for you to send to them telling them why the group is so important and  inviting them to express their interest, which can be found at:  http://campaignforbodyconfidence.wordpress.com/appg

Central YMCA will be providing the secretariat to the group and we hope to launch  the APPG this spring - more news soon!

Central YMCA and University of Westminster team up to speak to young people about  body image

Central YMCA and its operation Y Touring have secured funding to work with the  University of Westminster to develop and evaluate ways of promoting body  confidence in children and young people. The project will start in February, and  will attempt to identify effective ways of engaging young people in discussion and  debate about their body image in both schools and informal education.

Royal College of Psychiatrists Christmas debate

In December, Jo Swinson MP participated in the Royal College of Psychiatrists’  Christmas debate, ‘are the media to blame for eating disorders?’ with two teams of  psychiatrists, chaired by Dr Jim Bolton. The College told us that it was the best -attended debate they have held, well-represented and informative.

Jo set the scene by discussing how poor body image and low self-esteem contribute  to eating disorders. Whilst both teams agreed about the negative effects of the  bombardment of ‘perfect’ figures in media images, they acknowledged that the  causes of eating disorders are more complex that one factor alone.

For more information on the work of the Royal College, visit – www.rcpsych.ac.uk
The podcast of the debate will available be on the CBC website soon.

Sexualisation and commercialisation of childhood review

Back in December, Childrens’ Minister Sarah Teather asked Reg Bailey from the  Mothers’ Union to carry out an independent review on commercialisation and  sexualisation of childhood, to address parents’ concerns about the pressures on  children to grow up too quickly.

The consultation is now calling for the submission of evidence until March 18th  2011, and is expected to report back in May.
You can submit evidence to the consultation at the following website -
www.education.gov.uk/consultations/index.cfm? action=consultationDetails&consultationId=1749&external=no&menu=1

Get involved
·         Forward this newsletter to a friend and ask them to sign up to the  Campaign for Body Confidence.
·         Spread the word by writing to your MP to tell her/him about the campaign  and the Body Image APPG.  Find out who your MP is, and write to them here -  www.theyworkforyou.com – and our template letter about the Body Image APPG is here  - http://campaignforbodyconfidence.wordpress.com/appg
·         Have you found misleading and retouched advertisements? Make a complaint  to the Advertising Standards Association. If you find an advertisement that has  clearly been digitally altered to an extent that distorts people’s perception of  bodies – log a complaint on the ASA’s website - www.asa.org.uk/Complaints-and-ASA -action/How-to-complain
·         Perhaps you’ve got questions, suggestions or a body confidence message  to share with us? Email info@bodyconfidence.org.uk – we’d really like to hear from  you.
That's all for this month!

Best wishes,

Campaign for Body Confidence

Pippa Page
info@campaignforbodyconfidence.org.uk
0207 219 8088 - 308 Portcullis House, House of Commons, Westminster, London SW1A  0AA

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