ABC Case Study - The Loup Women's Group

The Loup Women's Group

The Loup Women's Group came into the ABC Programme as an established group with more than twenty years of activities behind them. They knew what they were about and had the relationships to prove it. They were looking for room to grow and by the end of their year of support, they'd found it.

Where they started

Based in The Loup in County Derry/L’Derry, the group had been meeting regularly, running activities, and building friendships across the community for over 20 years. Their mission was clear: to provide opportunities for women from The Loup and the surrounding area to build friendships and access social, recreational and educational activities.

But they came into the programme with specific ambitions. Digital skills were high on the list, not just using technology in general terms, but practical confidence with hardware they already owned. Their Facebook page had gone quiet. They wanted help waking it back up and keeping it alive.

They also wanted governance support, a clearer structure, and the kind of external perspective that's hard to get when you're deep inside the day-to-day running of a volunteer group.

The journey

Over the course of the year, The Loup Women's Group worked through the full programme alongside their cohort. They developed their Mission, Vision and Values, producing a piece of work that captured what the group is really about: friendships, acceptance, personal achievement, empathy and care, and being together.

The A3 print of their Mission, Vision and Values, featuring the Woods of Killetra artwork at its centre alongside images of the three local churches, is now a tangible piece of the group's identity. It didn't exist before the programme.

They took part in ICT training delivered in partnership with AbilityNet, building practical digital confidence.

They attended a Good Practice Visit to Strabane Community Project alongside Bush Women's Group, where Ursula and the Strabane team gave an honest account of how they'd built their group from the ground up. The visit left an impression, and an invitation followed to return to Strabane to see the completed community garden, with a shared conversation on food, cost of living, and generational differences planned as a follow-on thread.

They also completed action planning across three strands: building friendships, social activities, and learning, giving the committee a shared map of where they wanted to go and how to get there.

What changed

The shift that Loup Women's Group describe in their own words was about growth and doing new things.

That one line captures something significant. A group that had been doing good work for over twenty years came through the programme willing to take on harder challenges. One committee member in particular was noted as more confident expressing her opinion and showing more initiative than before.

The summary statement from their final evaluation says it plainly:

"It has given us the confidence in pushing the boat out, to take on doing hard things instead of the same easy things. We have really gained a lot in terms of individual self-confidence."

For a group that came in already functioning well, that's a meaningful shift.  The programme gave an already-committed group the space, the structure, and the peer connections to stretch further than they'd felt able to before.

What's next

The Loup Women's Group now carry with them a clearer sense of identity, a set of practical tools, and an open invitation back to Strabane. They also carry the knowledge that the easy things are no longer the limit.

The ABC Programme is funded through Dormant Assets NI by The National Lottery Community Fund Northern Ireland and delivered by the Northern Ireland Rural Women's Network (NIRWN).