Women’s Health in the South East’s vision is to see all women in our community safe, healthy and thriving. We want to assure you that during these uncertain times, our work will continue.

To all our members, stakeholders and partners, we wish to advise that commencing immediately, we have enacted a business continuity plan to respond to the COVID19 pandemic. This plan is in keeping with advice from the Victorian Chief Medical Officer and recognises the Victorian Government’s declaration of a State of Emergency that was declared on Monday 16 March.

Our approach seeks to:

1. Support the wellbeing of our staff, Directors and volunteers
2. Implement the advice from our health authorities to minimise the spread of COVID19
3. Be mindful of the needs of our partners and the changing ways of work and priorities that they will need to adapt to 
4. Maintain our relationships and work with partners on primary prevention and women’s health
5. Support the achievement of our long term goals and social impact

Changes you will see:

• WHISE staff will work from home and all Board meetings and committees will be held remotely using our technology platforms
• Our main office number will have voice messaging activated and be monitored twice a day
• WHISE will continue to engage with our partners and stakeholders practicing social distancing – we will seek to maintain our meeting schedule and hold our one to one meetings by video conference
• Steering committees and working groups will be held remotely using video conferencing where possible
• WHISE communities of practice and information/learning forums will be adapted and evolve to allow WHISE to continue to offer capacity and capability building while still holding true to the Chief Medical Officers guidance for the pandemic

We will adapt and evolve our ways of work to meet the needs of our partners during this COVID19 pandemic while still seeking to progress to better health outcomes and services for women in our region and our social impact. 

Our partners and stakeholders who are due to participate in forums, meet with WHISE, and participate in working groups will soon hear from the WHISE team, to discuss our program of work going forward and your participation.

Further, we will also be keen to learn how our partners and stakeholders are responding to the pandemic, and what support WHISE can provide within our remit. We believe that work for gender equality is especially important at the moment given the emerging evidence of the high priority needs for women and disaster including the current pandemic. 

In the meantime, we thank you for your support and appreciate that it is a difficult and evolving time for all. We look forward to speaking with you soon.

Kind regards,

Kit McMahon
CEO