Coffee, kai and conversation will be on offer at the Brunel Peaks Cafe at Blackmount on Saturday.
The event is being organised by ConnectHer Southland co-ordinator Victoria Pemberton.
ConnectHer is a Rural Women New Zealand initiative to help support rural women and is being piloted in Southland.
It is funded by the Ministry of Primary Industries and began in Southland in November.
It is also being trialled in the East Coast and Wairoa.
Mrs Pemberton said the idea for ConnectHer came out of the Rural Women’s centenary celebrations last year.
It was recognised that rural women still faced barriers of isolation and limited access to services.
Her role involved taking a two-pronged approach to help support rural women in overcoming those barriers. Firstly she was available to help women connect with the services they needed. When someone was referred to ConnectHer, she took time to listen to the person and find out what their needs were so she could direct them to whoever could help.
In the process of doing that, if she found there was a lack of help available she would report back to the appropriate government agency.
Her second role was organising events for women to meet.
"What we’re trying to address is the isolation and how people in rural communities make connections and then also bring speakers and topics that you’d normally have to travel to a main centre for."
The first event in December was a paint-and-sip evening in Riverton.
"We had about 25 women come to that and it was fantastic."
Feedback had been positive.
"People have found value and really appreciated the events and it’s helped them form connections and make friends and do something different and a bit fun."
There were also plans to hold events that focused on women’s health.
Mrs Pemberton grew up in rural Southland and had experience in women’s health, cancer services and research projects focused on bringing health services to rural areas.
