SSGT is a long-time supporter of systems-change that impacts women and families. We understand that it is women and the families that they care for that often feel the impact of social disadvantage most deeply, but that with adequate support, it is those very women that emerge as the most effective leaders of change within their communities.

Over our thirty years as a grant maker, we have supported, and continue to support some of the most marginalised women and families on the island of Ireland including:

Supporting Traveller women to advocate for change around issues such as accommodation by investing in groups such as Cork Traveller Women’s Network and the National Traveller Women’s Forum. We believe in empowering female leaders, not through grant aid alone but through a commitment to a sustained and long-term investment in the issues that affect them directly.

Supporting women and families directly impacted by imprisonment through our Family Matters Programme which is underpinned by a belief that putting families at the heart of the criminal justice system and processes is the ‘golden thread’ which can reduce the harm of imprisonment and contribute to rehabilitation. As part of our new strategic plan, we will continue to invest in this area to support better outcomes for these women and their families.

Promoting the role of women in peacebuilding in Northern Ireland through our ‘Supporting Intercommunity Practice and Activism’ grant programme and by commissioning research that looks specifically at the role of female leadership in grassroots peacebuilding processes.

Contributing to an improvement in the situation for women in International Protection through grant programmes like ‘Stand Up, Speak Out’, a multi-annual programme that amplifies and centre-stages the voices and leadership of those with experience of the asylum process and through our newest programme ‘Supporting vulnerable women and families in the IP process’ that focusses on lone parents, families with children who have additional needs, women and children who have survived abuse, victims of sex trafficking and families with deportation orders. You can find details of the programme here.

At SSGT we believe that, by supporting women to dismantle the barriers that prevent them from using their voices and accessing positions of power, we can contribute to a social change agenda that will have positive outcomes for many generations to come.