A resolution is a call for change on a current issue in society. Once a resolution has been adopted at the Annual Meeting, the Public Affairs Department turns it into a campaign. Through national and local campaigning, members play a key role in achieving change on important issues.
The following two resolutions were passed with over 90% each at the recent NFWI Online annual meeting on 4 June 2026:
1. Accessible public toilet facilities to promote dignity, health, and social inclusion
This resolution is a call for accessible, clean, free public toilets which are fundamental to inclusion and wellbeing, especially for women, older people, disabled individuals, parents and carers. It invites WI branches to take meaningful action—through advocacy, partnership, and community engagement—to support local authorities and civil society in reversing the closure trend and ensuring dignity for all.
2. Action on women’s homelessness
The NFWI echoes the calls of homelessness charities and urges all levels of government to take action to reduce women’s homelessness, reduce the number of women at risk of homelessness, and improve the quality of temporary accommodation. We call on WI members to support homelessness organisations in their communities and campaign to ensure that all women have a place they can safely call home.
NFWI Latest Campaigns
No Woman Without a Home
Ending Hidden Homelessness Among Women
For more than a century, the Women's Institute has demonstrated the power of women coming together to create change. Since our first national resolution in 1918, which called for better housing for women and families, WI members have campaigned on issues that matter to women, their families and communities.
Today, we are tackling one of the greatest social injustices facing women and girls: hidden homelessness.
Homelessness is not always visible. While many people think of rough sleeping when they hear the word "homelessness", women's experiences are often hidden. Women may be sofa surfing, living in temporary accommodation, staying in unsafe housing, or remaining in abusive relationships because they have nowhere else to go.
Domestic abuse is one of the leading causes of women's homelessness, alongside poverty, rising housing costs, poor mental health and insecure employment. Too often, women are forced to leave their homes while perpetrators remain.
This must change.
The Scale of the Challenge
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382,618 people are estimated to be homeless in England.
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175,025 children are experiencing homelessness.
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134,210 households are living in temporary accommodation in England.
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More than 176,000 children are living in temporary accommodation.
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Domestic abuse accounts for 15.9% of homelessness relief cases.
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65% of women surveyed in the Women's Rough Sleeping Census had slept in places excluded from official counts or stayed awake through the night to avoid detection.
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Councils spend £2.84 billion each year on temporary accommodation.
Behind every statistic is a woman, child or family experiencing instability, insecurity and trauma.
Why Women's Homelessness Is Different
Women's homelessness is often hidden from official statistics because many women take steps to stay out of sight for safety reasons.
Women experiencing homelessness are more likely to:
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Sleep in unsafe locations that are not captured by official counts.
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Stay with strangers or acquaintances.
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Remain in abusive relationships to avoid homelessness.
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Move between temporary and insecure accommodation.
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Go without support from homelessness services.
As a result, many women remain invisible within the current system.
Our Three Campaign Asks
1. Keep Her Home
The perpetrator leaves. The victim stays.
We want to change the default response to domestic abuse so that, wherever it is safe to do so, women and children can remain in their homes while perpetrators are removed.
No woman should become homeless because someone else's violence forced her to flee.
2. Keep Her Safe
A Women's Safe Home Guarantee.
Every survivor should receive practical support to remain safe and secure, including:
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Home security improvements and lock changes.
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Housing and tenancy advice.
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Financial and legal support.
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Access to specialist domestic abuse services.
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A named support worker to coordinate help.
Domestic Abuse Protection Orders (DAPOs) provide an important foundation by allowing perpetrators to be removed from the home. However, survivors also need the practical support required to rebuild their lives safely.
3. Count Her. Prevent It.
Make hidden homelessness visible.
Women who avoid visible rough sleeping are often excluded from official homelessness data. The WI is calling for:
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Mandatory participation in the Women's Rough Sleeping Census.
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Better gender-informed data collection.
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Improved measurement of homelessness prevention, not just homelessness crisis.
If women are not counted, their needs cannot be properly understood or addressed.
The 5,000 Conversations Challenge
One conversation could change a life. Imagine 5,000.
As part of the No Woman Without a Home campaign, every WI is encouraged to host at least one community event focused on women's homelessness.
Events could include guest speakers, community discussions, panel events, coffee mornings, film screenings or awareness activities.
By opening our doors to local communities, charities, housing providers, councillors, MPs, Members of the Senedd and people with lived experience, we can build understanding and inspire action. Together we aim to create:
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5,000 conversations across England, Wales and the Islands.
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Greater awareness of hidden homelessness.
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Stronger partnerships with local charities and support organisations.
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Increased engagement with decision-makers.
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Meaningful change for women and girls at risk of homelessness.
How WIs Can Get Involved
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Write to MPs, councillors and Members of the Senedd.
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Support the Women's Rough Sleeping Census.
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Sign the petition (launching on 16 November 2026)
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Invite local homelessness and domestic abuse charities to speak.
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Hold community awareness events.
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Fundraise for local organisations supporting women experiencing homelessness.
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Share local stories and examples of good practice.
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Help raise awareness of support services available in your area.
Our Vision
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We want a future where no woman becomes homeless because she is fleeing abuse.
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Success means:
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Women can remain safely in their homes wherever possible.
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Hidden homelessness is recognised and measured, by every local authority.
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Every survivor receives coordinated support.
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Government policy reflects the reality of women's experiences.
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No woman has to choose between violence and homelessness.
Together, WI members can make women's homelessness visible, influence change and help create a future where no woman is left without a home.
Bystanders can be Bystanders Can be Lifesavers
This campaign calls on WI members to work together to increase public confidence
and training in the delivery of CPR and to work with local organisations to help
improve access to defibrillators in their communities.
At the 2025 NFWI Annual Meeting on 4 June, WI members voted in favour of
the Bystanders Can Be Lifesavers resolution.
The resolution is as follows:
There are over 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests a year in the UK, and less than one in ten people survive. Women have a lower chance of surviving than men. Early cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and defibrillation can more than double the chances of survival. We call on WI members to work together to increase public confidence and training in the delivery of CPR and to work with local organisations to help improve access to defibrillators in their communities to give every person the best chance of surviving a cardiac arrest.
Margate WI – East Kent Federation
To find out more please click here to visit the NFWI's page on this subject.
Dental Health resolution passes at AM
On 5 June, thousands of WI members gathered at the Royal Albert Hall
in London. After passionate speeches and a lively debate, the 2024
resolution passed with the support of over 95 per cent of WIs.
There is a chronic shortage of NHS Dentists and people are suffering
health issues as a result. The NFWI calls on the Government to increase
investment in the training and retention of dentists and to review the
current inadequate NHS contracts to ensure everyone can access an
NHS dentist wherever they live.
The Labour Party won the General Election in July 2024 with a manifesto pledging to tackle the dental health crisis. The new government pledged to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments, recruit new dentists to areas that need them most, reform the dental contract, focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists, and introduce a supervised tooth-brushing scheme for 3- to 5-year-olds, targeting the areas of highest need.
Under the Dental Health Matters campaign, we will be holding this government to account, pushing for the reform of dental contracts, and engaging with them on their plans to retain NHS dentists.
To find out more please click here to visit the NFWI's page on this subject.
Clean Rivers for People and Wildlife
This campaign is encouraging members to make and support applications
to create bathing waters in rivers across England and Wales as a way to
drive the cleanup of our precious waters.
“Water quality in our rivers is shameful. Legally designated bathing waters
must be regularly monitored for pollution. The NFWI urges its members,
the wider public, local authorities, and the Government to make, support
and promote applications for officially designated bathing sites on
appropriate stretches of rivers in their area. This will be instrumental to the
clean-up of rivers as it has been for water quality improvement at coastal beaches.”
In 2023 the Clean Rivers campaign was launched. It seeks to tackle river pollution from key sources such as sewage run-off and industrial agriculture, in particular through promoting bathing water designation.
What we have achieved so far:-
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In 2023 River Action UK’s Charter for Rivers was signed.
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We joined the End Sewage Pollution Coalition, led by Surfers against Sewage.
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September 2023 the first WI Week of River Action was held.
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In Spring 2024 we supported The Soil Association’s petition to stop industrial poultry units.
In May 2024 27 new bathing water designations were awarded in several rivers, including Friar Meadows (River Stour) and Wallingford Beach (River Thames) respectively.
To find out more please click here to visit the NFWI's page on this subject.
Thinking Differently: Autistic and ADHD Women
and Girls
Our campaign seeks to raise awareness of Autism and ADHD in women and
girls and to take action to improve the diagnosis process.
Background
Autistic Spectrum Condition (ASC) is the medical name for autism. Autism is a
lifelong developmental condition which affects how people communicate and
interact with the world.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a condition that affects people's behaviour.
Although the main components of Autism and ADHD are different, they can share some of the same symptoms and presenting issues. Historically, ASC and ADHD have been recognised as mainly affecting men and boys resulting in women and girls being overlooked or misdiagnosed.
According to the National Autistic Society, men and boys are three times
more likely than women and girls to be diagnosed as autistic. ADHD can
present differently in girls. Boys are more often described as ‘hyperactive’
while girls are more often described as ‘inattentive’ or as a combination of
inattentive and hyperactive.
Women and girls are often better at masking or camouflaging their
difficulties. In general, they engage in more “internalising” behaviour than
boys, meaning they tend to take their problems out on themselves rather
than others.
According to the National Autistic Society’s Centre for Autism, professionals
often don’t recognise and understand the different ways autism can manifest in women and girls.
To find out more please click here to visit the NFWI's page on this subject.
See the Signs
Our campaign seeks to raise awareness of the subtle signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer to help ensure that more women are diagnosed earlier. According to Cancer Research UK, there are around 7,500 new ovarian cancer cases in the UK each year, and 4,200 deaths.
It is one of the most common types of cancer in women, mainly affecting those who have been through menopause. Early diagnosis makes it easier to treat, but because the early symptoms are similar to other conditions it is often not diagnosed until a cure is not possible.
If you are experiencing one or more of the symptoms, please speak to your GP. For more information please visit ovarian.org.uk
To find out more please click here to visit the NFWI's page on this subject.
Stop Modern Slavery
This campaign seeks to raise awareness of modern slavery in the UK. It also calls for better
support for survivors, as well as more effective action to eradicate the problem.
Modern slavery is a complex crime that takes a number of different forms. It encompasses
slavery, servitude, forced and compulsory labour and human trafficking. Traffickers and slave
drivers coerce, deceive and force individuals against their will into a life of abuse, servitude,
and inhumane treatment. Victims may be sexually exploited, forced to work for little or no pay
or forced to commit criminal activities against their will.
The true extent of modern slavery in the UK and globally is unknown, but the best estimates
suggest that there are around 40 million victims worldwide. The UK government estimates that there are tens of thousands of people in slavery in the UK today.Modern slavery crimes are being committed across the UK and are taking place in many different sectors including factories, fields, brothels, nail bars and even within people’s homes. There is no typical victim of slavery – victims can be men, women or children of all ages and nationalities. According to the Salvation Army, the number of UK victims who had been enslaved through labour exploitation rose by 63% between July 2018 and June 2019.
To find out more please click here to visit the NFWI's page on this subject.
Make a Match
This campaign seeks to promote registration to the aligned UK stem cell registry to enable
more people to receive potentially life-saving stem cell transplants.
Background
Every twenty minutes, someone in the UK is diagnosed with blood cancer. Often, replacing
their cancerous blood cells through a blood stem cell donation from a matching donor is their
best chance of survival.
Ideally, stem cells are taken from a family member of the person who needs them (siblings are the most likely to match your tissue type). However, according to NHS Blood and Transplant, 65-75% of people who require this treatment are unable to find a sibling match.
Most people, therefore, depend on finding a suitable donor on the aligned ‘Anthony Nolan and NHS Stem Cell Registry.’ This is formed of Anthony Nolan, DKMS UK, NHS Blood and Transplant, and the Welsh Bone Marrow Donor Registry. There is also a global network of registries which can be searched.
While a number of organisations are already working on this issue, meeting the demand for suitable stem cell donors is recognised as a big challenge. DKMS UK says that many people die because they are unable to find a donor.
Currently, in the UK, only 2% of people are registered as stem cell donors. In order for more matches to be found, more people are urgently needed to join the registry.
To find out more please click here to visit the NFWI's page on this subject.
End Plastic Soup
Our campaign explores the scale of the microplastic fibre pollution and calls on the
government and industry to develop solutions to the problem.
Microplastic fibres are small (5mm or smaller) plastic fragments shed from synthetic
clothes when washed. As the fragments are too small to be caught by the machine’s
filters, they then flow into the sewage system and eventually into the ocean, where
those fibres are often swallowed or absorbed by plants and fish, filling up their
stomachs and in some cases causing them to die.
The scale of the problem is large, as millions of people wash their clothes every week. These fibres can also end up in the food we eat – the long-term effects of which are not yet clear.
Launched in 2017, our End Plastic Soup campaign explores the scale of the microplastic fibre pollution and calls on the government and industry to develop solutions to the problem. The issue is complex and involves a wide range of stakeholders, from the clothing and wastewater treatment industries to washing machine manufacturers.
To find out more please click here to visit the NFWI's page on this subject.
No More Violence Against Women
We are raising awareness and taking action to end the scourge of
violence against women.
Background
For the year ending March 2019, an estimated 1.6 million women across the
UK experienced violence, including domestic violence, rape, forced marriage,
sexual exploitation and other forms of abuse and harassment. Launched in
2019, our No More Violence against Women campaign encourages WI
members to take action to end the scourge of violence against women.
Tackling domestic violence has been a longstanding concern for the WI. Throughout our history, the WI has campaigned to make sure that women and girls can live the lives they choose, free from the fear of abuse.
The WI campaigned for the funding of refuges in every county in 1975, to make sure that domestic violence survivors were able to access justice through the courts in 1988 and to adequately define domestic violence under the law in 1993.
To find out more please click here to visit the NFWI's page on this subject.
Climate Change
The WI has a proud history of taking action to protect the
environment. As a founding member of The Climate Coalition,
the WI movement works to urge policymakers to take decisive
action to tackle climate change, and to encourage community
networks to come together on climate action projects in their
local area.
For nearly 100 years, WI members have led campaigns to conserve the natural world from environmental degradation and climate change. Generations of WI members have used their campaigning might to call for action on issues as diverse as water pollution (1936), acid rain (1985), the ozone layer and CFCs (1988), deforestation (1989), renewable energy (1977 and 2006), litter - a campaign which founded one of Britain’s leading environmental organisations Keep Britain Tidy in 1954 – recycling and conservation of resources (2005), and the protection of birds (1933), honeybees (2009) and animal welfare.
Be it making simple swaps in their own lives, or lobbying policymakers as part of the WI’s Climate Ambassador scheme, more and more WI members are taking action to protect our world for generations to come.
What climate campaigns will the WI be focusing on?
As the largest women’s voluntary organisation in the UK, the WI will be
using our campaigning might to call for ambitious domestic policies that get
the UK on track for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. We will be working alongside partners in The Climate Coalition, Warm this Winter and
Unchecked UK to campaign for green, clean solutions to rising energy bills,
and to retain hard-won environmental policies and protections.
The WI will also be continuing to boost our WI Climate Ambassador scheme
with new resources, training, and expert panel events. If you are a WI member, you can find out more about the WI Climate Ambassador scheme here.
To find out more please click here to visit the NFWI's page on this subject.
Our campaigns tackle issues that matter to women in their communities. From equal pay to climate change, mental health and violence against women, over the past 100 years we have embraced a diverse set of challenges. The WI has brought about real change - and we are just getting started.
To find out more about our current and past campaigns: Click Here
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