About IWN

Who We Are

Inspiring Women Network (IWN) is a women-led organisation rooted in Cornwall, working alongside women to build connection, challenge inequality and create opportunities for women to shape their own lives, communities and futures.

Our work is particularly focused on women whose experiences and voices are too often overlooked or underrepresented, including women affected by racism, migration, poverty, isolation and other forms of inequality. But there is no single kind of woman who belongs at IWN. Women come to us at different stages of their lives and for many different reasons: to meet people, find support, learn something new, develop an idea, share their culture, build confidence, have their voice heard or simply feel part of something.

What brings our work together is the belief that women are experts in their own lives. We don't start from the assumption that we know what women or communities need. We listen, build relationships and create alongside them, allowing our work to develop in response to the experiences, ideas and realities women bring to us.

That can look very different from one day to the next. It might mean supporting a woman through a difficult situation, bringing women together over food or a walk, helping someone develop an enterprise idea, creating space for conversations about women's health, or bringing women's experiences into discussions with organisations and decision-makers. For us, these aren't separate pieces of work. They are different ways of creating connection, opportunity, voice and change.

IWN is feminist, anti-racist and community-led. We recognise that women's lives are shaped not only by gender, but by race, class, disability, migration, caring responsibilities, economic circumstances and many other experiences. We want the spaces we create to reflect that complexity, while remaining somewhere women can arrive as themselves and be treated with dignity, respect and care.

The full story

Our Story

IWN began in Cornwall with a simple need: women wanted somewhere to come together.

IWN began in Cornwall in 2010, not as a formal organisation, but as a community group bringing women together.

Our earliest work grew from relationships with Muslim and South Asian women who were experiencing isolation and had few opportunities locally to meet other women, build friendships or take part in activities that felt relevant and accessible to them. Rather than beginning with a programme and asking women to fit into it, the work developed around the women themselves: the conversations they were having, the things they wanted to do and the barriers they were encountering in their everyday lives.

Women brought other women, new relationships formed and the group began to grow. In 2012, Inspiring Women Network was formally constituted as a Community Interest Company, giving a structure to work that had already been developing within the community for two years.

From there, IWN continued to evolve. New communities became part of the network, activities developed, partnerships formed and the issues women brought into the room began to shape new areas of work. What started with creating opportunities for women to meet and connect gradually grew to include advocacy and one-to-one support, health and wellbeing, learning and enterprise, cultural programmes, research, women's rights and opportunities for women to influence the decisions and systems affecting their lives.

The organisation has changed considerably over the years, but something important has remained the same: our work grows through relationships. Some of the strongest things IWN has created have begun with a woman saying, “Could we…?”, could we have somewhere to meet, could we talk about this, could we learn this, could we do something like this in our community?

That way of working has taught us that connection is not an extra around the edges of more serious work. A conversation over tea can lead to somebody asking for support. A creative session can be the first place a woman begins to feel comfortable in a new community. A walk can lead to friendship, an idea shared at a workshop can become a business, and the experiences women share with us can reveal barriers that need to be challenged far beyond IWN.

Today, IWN works with women from many different backgrounds and communities across Cornwall, while continuing to give particular attention to women who experience marginalisation and whose voices are less likely to be heard. Some of our spaces are specifically for women or particular communities where that is needed; others bring the wider community together around women's experiences, ideas and issues.

More than a decade after IWN began, we are still learning and changing. We don't want to become an organisation that decides what communities need from a distance. We want to remain close enough to hear what women are telling us, flexible enough to respond, and confident enough to challenge the inequalities we see.

The network has grown, but the starting point remains the same: women, their experiences, their ideas and the relationships we build together.

What We Believe

We believe women are the experts in their own lives.

Women come to IWN with their own knowledge, strengths, experiences and ambitions. Our role is not to decide what a woman needs or who she should become, but to listen, work alongside her and create opportunities for her to make her own choices.

We also know that the challenges women face do not happen in isolation. Gender, race, disability, poverty, migration, caring responsibilities and other inequalities can shape a woman’s opportunities and experiences in very different ways.

That is why our work is rooted in equity rather than treating everyone as though they begin from the same place.

We believe in the power of relationships, community and collective action. Sometimes change begins with practical support. Sometimes it begins with meeting another woman, having somewhere to go, learning something new or finally being heard. And sometimes it means challenging the systems and inequalities that made support necessary in the first place.

How We Work

IWN has always grown by listening to women and communities rather than deciding from a distance what people need.

Our work is community-led, trauma-informed, culturally aware, strengths-based, collaborative and informed by evidence and lived experience.

That can mean co-designing a project with the women who will take part in it, supporting a woman to turn an idea into something for her community, working with partners to address a gap, or using what women tell us to influence wider conversations and services.

Relationships come first. We take time to build trust, understand different experiences and create spaces where women can participate in ways that work for them.

We don't expect one approach to work for every woman, and we keep learning from the communities we work alongside.

Mission

Our mission is to connect, inspire, and empower women to thrive and fulfil their unique potential by cultivating a vibrant, affirming, and inclusive community.

Our work creates opportunities for women to connect with others, access support, develop ideas and skills, share their experiences and have a voice in the things that affect their lives. We work particularly with women whose experiences are underrepresented or who face barriers to participation, and we shape our work alongside the communities we work with rather than assuming we know what they need.

Vision

Our vision is for a world that is just, equitable, and inclusive for all women and their families.

We want a society where women have the freedom, resources and opportunities to shape their own lives and participate fully in their communities. A society where women's different experiences are understood, where inequality and the barriers it creates are challenged, and where women have a meaningful voice in the decisions and systems that affect them.

IWN's Values

Our Values: At IWN, we uphold a set of values that guide everything we do:

Compassion
We meet people with kindness, empathy and respect, recognising that every woman brings her own experiences, circumstances and story.

Equity
We know that treating everyone the same does not always create fairness. We pay attention to the different barriers women face and work to challenge the inequalities that create them.

Collaboration
We believe better things happen when people work together. We build relationships with women, communities and organisations, sharing knowledge, ideas and responsibility rather than working in isolation.

Integrity
We want people to be able to trust us. That means being honest, accountable and transparent, taking responsibility for our decisions and trying to do what is right even when it is difficult.

Courage
We are willing to ask difficult questions, challenge inequality and speak about things that are sometimes easier to avoid. We are also willing to learn, change our minds and do things differently when we need to.

Community
IWN grew from community, and community remains at the heart of who we are. We create opportunities for women to participate, contribute, build relationships and shape the spaces they are part of.

Meet the Founders

Founder & CEO

Nour Chakroun

Nour was born in Lebanon and moved to Canada in 1990, before relocating to the UK to study Islamic Studies. Nour speaks English, Arabic and French. She graduated with a Master’s in Islamic Studies from the University of Exeter then embarked on a role in community development with Unity Cornwall and set up the Muslim and South Asian Women’s Support Group, aimed at reducing isolation and creating opportunities for marginalised women across Cornwall. This led to her founding Inspiring Women Network in 2010. Nour is a fellow of the School for Social Entrepreneurs, graduating from their Start Up and Trade Up programmes.

Founding Director

Caroline Gayle-Dunne

Caroline has lived in Cornwall for the past 30 years and is passionate about supporting disadvantaged groups, particularly where deprivation is often hidden. Caroline initially trained as a mental health nurse before becoming a counselling psychotherapist, specialising in domestic abuse and violence against women, providing accessible therapeutic care for women. As a Black woman living in Cornwall, Caroline has drawn from her experiences to advocate for and promote the needs of Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic communities. She also served as a board member of Unity Cornwall.