• Avoid food waste, address food poverty (no.7 below)
  “The WI calls on all supermarkets to sign up to a voluntary agreement to avoid food waste, thereby passing surplus food on to charities thus helping to address the issue of increasing food poverty in the UK.”
• Appropriate care in hospitals for people with dementia (no. 8 below)
  “We call upon HM Government and the NHS to provide facilities to enable carers to stay with people with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia that have been admitted into hospital.”

In 2016, each WI was presented with eight shortlisted resolutions. For each proposal the Sotonettes wrote a blog post giving members more information to help them decide which cause they would like to support in 2017. Below is a summary of each of the 8 resolutions and the corresponding links to our blog posts:

1. Ban the microbead “We call on WI members to take action to reduce use of plastic microbead containing products in their own homes and communities; to raise awareness of the problems associated with plastic microbeads; and to lobby manufacturers, retailers and see the UK Government […] in proposing a ban on the use of these products.”

2. British fruit: reviving our heritage “This meeting calls on the WI to spearhead a national campaign that creates a fruit revival in local communities, celebrates our WI roots, promotes health, addresses food security, and reduces the  carbon footprint.”

3. Free sanitary protection for homeless women “We call upon WIs to campaign for homeless shelters to be provided with a funding allowance to enable them to provide sanitary protection (tampons and towels) for homeless women.”

4. Prevention of sudden cardiac death in young adults in the UK “This meeting urges Her Majesty’s Government to put in place a national strategy for the prevention of young sudden cardiac death to ensure that all young people between the ages of 14 and 35 have access to heart screening by appropriately qualified professionals to identify any potentially life-threatening conditions.”

5. First aid to save lives “We propose that HM government should promote first aid training in schools, colleges, universities and in the workplace. Furthermore, that all WIs should support and encourage first aid training and volunteer first aiders in their communities so that we become a safer and better informed country ready to help save lives.”
6. Mind or body: equal funding for care “The National Federation of Women’s Institutes calls upon the government to ensure that the care of people with poor mental health receives funding and respect equal to that provided for people with physical health problems.”

7. Avoid food waste, address food poverty “The WI calls on all supermarkets to sign up to a voluntary agreement to avoid food waste, thereby passing surplus food onto charities thus helping to address the issue of increasing food poverty in the UK”

8. Appropriate care in hospitals for people with dementia “We call upon HM government and the NHS to provide facilities to enable carers to stay with people with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia that have been admitted into hospital”