IWA Modena Community Engagement

IWA Modena strives to connect with the local community, and support local organisations and projects with a focus on women. Please contact Liz Dirjal or Rosy Stainer, our IWAM Engagement Leaders to find out how you can volunteer with the Community Engagement Team.

Contact Liz or Rosy

‘Women for Women’

IWA Modena has been supporting community associations since 2015 by organising Christmas presents for kids and people in need in our city of Modena. The warm response of our members led to more organised and structured community initiatives.

IWA Modena is about women supporting women. The mission of the IWA Modena Community Engagement Initiative is to:

support a local charity/organisation that supports women in need (by raising funds for them and raising awareness of their cause),
enable IWA Modena to maintain a visible presence in the local community, and
allow IWA Modena members to do something impactful together in our adopted city (by organizing and participating in the event).

The IWA Modena Community Engagement Initiative brings together a local charity and IWA Modena members. The charity benefits by gaining more funds as well as exposure to IWA Modena members and the local community. IWA Modena members benefit by working together for a local cause, allowing them to integrate further locally while making an impact and learning about and from the local charity.

Campaign for 2024/25

Embracing our Community and Thriving Together

The IWA Modena (IWAM) slogans, ‘Women for Women’, and ‘Pay it Forward’ continue to inspire our members to connect and give back to our Modenese Community as they integrate into their lives in Italy. In 2024, IWAM will develop further the work of previous years’ Community Engagement programmes. Last year’s programme maintained partnerships, and increased volunteering connections between our vibrant international community and associations in Modena. The Community Engagement Team will lead this year’s programme guided by the Board members, supporting IWAM members to build community connections. We will continue to consult with our members about charities, associations and campaigns they are interested in and confirm alignment with the aims and objectives of IWAM. Community Events, networking and opportunities for volunteering will be publicised and made available to all members through our media channels and communications.

Donne in Corsa image from Comune di Modena

Fundraising Efforts

As our slogan, “Women for Women”, continues to inspire us to give back to our Modenese Community we, IWA Modena, are committed to the welfare of all women in Modena. Therefore, it is with great pride that we continue to support women’s associations as we did in 2018 and 2019 with Casa delle Donne Contrο la Violenza Modena, raising in total over €16,000 Euros.

In 2020, we supported the fundraising effort for Il Cesto di Ciliege and this involved hosting Zoom cooking classes with 4 different chefs and cuisines on offer. This partnership came to end when they were able to buy the contrast-enhanced spectral mammography (CESM) machine they needed to purchase. This machine allows all women in Modena to be tested accurately for breast cancer and to allow women to fight this horrible disease before it spreads.

In July 2021, we formed a new partnership with the Association for the Integration of Women (AIW) and some of our members volunteered their time to share their knowledge and experiences with immigrant women through skill building training sessions for various topics. We also held fundraising events to raise money towards supporting the launch of their new project, a one-of-a-kind, food-based social project, “ROOTS:“. #w4wgrowingtogether

For our 2023/24 campaign, we changed our approach to raise awareness among our members of local opportunities to engage with the local community. The campaign was about bridging the gap between our vibrant international community and the local associations right here in Modena. We organised volunteer days at Porta Aperta and attended a Lunch and Learn event to discover more about our previous partner of the year; Casa delle Donne Contrο la Violenza Modena.

Previous Partners of the Year

2021 – 2022 Association for the Integration of Women (AIW)

AIW is a non profit association founded in April 2020 with the mission to provide resources for women to establish roots and flourish.

Campaign: Women for Women – Growing Together #w4wgrowingtogether

2020 Cesto di Ciliege

Cesto di Ciliege is a non-profit association committed to supporting women affected by breast cancer.

Campaign: Cooking to Fight Cancer

2018 & 2019 Casa delle Donne Contro la Violenza Modena

Founded in Modena in 1990 to support women who are victims of violence, are in a domestic or sex trafficking/work environment and wish to change their situation.

Campaign: Women for Women – Fighting Domestic Violence

Past Initiatives

As an organisation, we have historically held one fundraising event per year for our Partner of the Year. Since the 2020 Covid-19 Pandemic, we adjusted to the difficult and challenging times and moved a number of events online to continue as a community of women supporting each other as well as our Partner of the Year.

The fundraising events in 2018 and 2019 were charity galas. These raised money for Casa Delle Donne Contro la Violenza Modena and involved various activities including silent auctions and dinner were put on.

To support Il Cesto di Ciliege in 2020, we streamed live cooking classes with 4 professional chef’s on Zoom and all money raised went directly to the charity.

To find out more, click the links below.