Over the last five years, the support for women’s leadership at WISH has created an upswell of participation and innovation. Women have taken on leadership roles at the Women’s Advisory Group, facilitating, taking minutes and taking on tasks. For four years now, women have written, published and distributed the WISH Newsletter to all women in the organization. Women have collectively written grant proposals for learner events and have researched information for trips and other projects. In conjunction with a local fabric artist, women designed and sewed quilt panels to illustrate the grief and respect for all the missing and murdered women from the Downtown Eastside. At this time, women from WISH are participating in three programs as honorarium employees giving direction aboriginal health and safety work, HIV/AIDS education and committee work on within the organization.
Instead of designing curriculum for this chapter, we decided to provide some examples of leadership initiatives at WISH. We have included writing by women detailing their experiences as leaders. We have also attached some sample literacy materials that we created to support these activities.
You are the Leaders
You are the best experts for your group. You will know the best way to proceed. We know that there is great work about to happen in all of your communities. We are sending our best wishes and our full confidence. Good luck!