
Julie Hutchison
Elect-Her
When I ran for Town Council, I made 2 pledges.
The first was to complete the Elect-Her course which gives support to Women and Female Identified to run for council elections.
You get put into a Peer group and these are the women you will talk to every week for the length of the course. Every week you complete 'love work' , so this is a little homework to prepare for that week's session. They cover issues such as your motivations, your intentions, how to organise, build a team, social media, networking. They cover news stories and ask delegates to talk about how they see this news.
The Elect Her Team offer many other workshops that cover a whole variety of subjects.
When I took the course I was already elected. In my peer group, 2 were elected and 2 weren't, and by the end, the 2 who weren't had decided to run.
We need more women and Female Identified in councils. At first, I wasn't sure I was doing the right thing. Since then, I can see that I can really help to make changes that are needed.
I consider I'm still at the start of my journey.
For more information go to https://www.elect-her.org.uk and sign up for the next course.