How Women’s Work Lab is helping Somerset Mums rebuild confidence and secure meaningful employment

To mark International Women’s Day we spoke to Camilla Rigby, co-founder at Women’s Work Lab CIC. She explains how we’re helping support women in Somerset into meaningful employment, thanks to a 3-year grant for £27,000.

“At Women’s Work Lab we support women who are unemployed, away from work, and mainly – but not exclusively – on benefits. Most of the women we work with face significant barriers to working, such as: lone parenting, home displacement, those who have children with SEND or other challenges, survivors of domestic abuse, those for whom English is a second language or those who live in unstable housing.

Our 18-month programmes for women combine bespoke classroom training with a work placement, 1-2-1 career coaching and mentoring. We don’t make judgement; we help rebuild confidence, ambition and employability skills. We tell these women how brilliant they are – and help put them on a pathway to a more secure future.

Our work helps the entire household – the whole family unit – not just the mum. If we’re helping a mum improve their confidence and self-esteem, then it has a positive impact on the whole household. We’re helping them get a job but it’s also so much more than that. It’s building a support network of like-minded women, and many remain friends long after the programme is completed.

The reason we started Women’s Work Lab is that we saw there was a clear gap in the support on offer. Mums need and deserve special support.

Since our inception in 2019, the Women’s Work Lab has supported over 500 women in the south west – and two-thirds of them are now working. And since our work started in Somerset in September 2023, we’ve already supported – and continue to support – 75 mums and counting, with another 60 expected to have completed the programme by the end of the funding in 2026.

Our goal is to reach more mums in Somerset and to increase the impact of our programmes by reaching further and deeper into our communities.

The grant we received from Somerset Community Foundation – alongside the partnership we’ve built with Bridgwater & Taunton College – has enabled us to extend our offer from Bristol, where we started off, and work within Somerset. This would never have been possible without that funding. And the security of a multi-year grant has also enabled us to focus on growing our programme, building momentum, and providing continuous support for mums here in Somerset.”

13/02/25