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 Sam Frearson-Tubito, our IWAM Engagement Director to find out how you can volunteer with the Community Engagement Team.
Contact Sam

‘Women for Women’

Partner of the Year 2021/22

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.

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.

We are truly excited to kick off our new collaboration with the Association for the Integration of Women (AIW), an association whose principles are close to the hearts of IWAM members. Our new collaboration with AIW starts with launching the ‘Women for Women: Growing Together’ campaign to raise awareness and funds for the work of the association. #w4wgrowingtogether

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 have already volunteered their time to share their knowledge and experiences with immigrant women through skill building training sessions for various topics.

Previous Partners of the Year

logo casa delle donne

2021 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

logo casa delle donne

2018 & 2019 Casa delle Donne Contro la Violenza

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 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.

Charity Galas

In 2018 and 2019, we held charity galas to raise money for Casa Delle Donne Contro la Violenza for the Women for Women – Fighting Domestic Violence campaign.

Cooking Classes

In 2020, to raise money for the Cooking to Fight Cancer campaign, we put on four online cooking classes and all proceeds went directly to Il Cesto di Ciliege.

Apericena and Silent Auction

In 2021, we organised a well-attended apericena al Tramonto (at sunset) and ran an online silent auction to support the AIW with our Women for Women – Growing Together Campaign.

Volunteering & Donations

How our members support our community

The AIW Skill Builders Programme involved members offering their time to train the migrant women in key skills. To get involved in this programme, visit the AIW website under ‘Join Our Team‘.

How you can donate and give support

Donate: every contribution makes a difference and is much appreciated. To support the “Women For Women: Growing Together” #W4WGrowingTogether campaign you can donate here via our GoFundMe page.

We also occasionally run campaign fundraising events which you can of course join to show your support.

How you can get involved

Volunteer: behind our community engagement campaigns there is a team of wonderful volunteers with diverse skills and enthusiasm to support our local community and the associations we partner with.

If you are interested in being part of the team, please contact Sam Frearson-Tubito our IWAM Engagement Director about how you can volunteer with the Community Engagement Team.