This year is Leichhardt Women’s Community Health Centre’s 38th anniversary as the first women’s health centre in Australia.
Leichhardt Women’s Community Health Centre opened on International Women’s Day 1974 with a $30,000 grant from the Commonwealth Government. The funding was provided as a result of grass roots lobbying which had been conducted for several years by women involved in the women’s and abortion rights movement at the time. These women were very much part ofSydney’s Women’s Liberation Movement and ascribed to the belief that women’s health would improve if women’s health was run by women for women, if women had a place to talk about their bodies and to share their experiences.
Leichhardt Women’s Community Health Centre now receives most of its funding from the NSW Government through NSW Health. It’s still run by women for women and in many ways is at the centre of health care services delivery in Sydney’s inner west – especially in terms of service delivery to women on low incomes. Most of Leichhardt Women’s services are focussed on women experiencing disadvantage and annually around 20,000 occasions of service are provided.
For information about how you can help the centre, please see the page Support Us. Donations $2 and above are tax deductible.
This section is being developed to include more historical information and photographs.
Watch this space for more information.
