Based at 75-81 Eastgate St, Gloucester GL1 1PN.
Gloucestershire Chinese Women’s Guild (GCWG) was established in 1993. There is an elected committee with fifteen members all volunteers, including four elderly as co-opted honorary advisers, two councillors, one ex-mayoress and two solicitors. The committee members have been working very hard to establish the Guild during the last fifteen years. The Guild is both a registered charity and company limited by guarantee no share. They have a team of one full time, two part time staff and seventeen community volunteers and tutors and tutors assistants.Their services have proved to be very important to the Chinese community in Gloucestershire.
They started out with home visits, interpretation, support and advice for Chinese communities in Gloucestershire addressing to their needs. The Guild carried out a survey and produced a framework for the chinese elderly centre, the Chinese Cemetery at Coney Hill and established the Goh Ling Lok Elders/Carers Group (Goh Ling Lok meaning of old age people happiness) in 1999. The administration office in Gloucester is also a ‘drop in’ centre for the Chinese member community in Gloucestershire and sometimes beyond. They have extended the work to include advocacy, advice on benefits, education and training, social welfare and promoting Chinese culture. The guild serves the elders and their carers, expectant mothers and mothers with young children, working with employees, unemployed, disabled people, asylum seekers and refugees in the community. They also work for the Chinese Sheltered Housing and Resource Centre started on 1999 and will be built by 2010. “Finally, we embrace cultural diversity and welcome people from other ethnic backgrounds to join our activities and classes”.
