creating a better learning environment

• As women learn and try new, and progressively more challenging skills, they begin to believe in themselves. As trust in self and other group members grows, self-esteem and confidence levels can rise in a significant, concrete way.
  
  
• As women are led to set personal goals for the course, responsibility for daily decisions is put into their hands. As instructors, our job is to assist them in identifying their feelings and articulating their needs and desires, and then to guide them in asking for the support they need to meet their goals. This process is central to our work; we have learned that women who are survivors frequently have difficulty discerning their own feelings, are rarely, if ever, heard or respected for their voice, and rarely, if ever, supported in their growth or in making changes for themselves. These are new and foreign skills for many survivors. Their right to say "no" is paramount. This, in itself, is often an enormous revelation to female survivors who live in a world where women are expected to be available to others unconditionally.
  
  
• Learning occurs in the context of community. Women begin to connect with other women in a supportive environment, in a program entirely led by women staff. For many women, who have been taught to distrust other women, it is a revelation.

The Women of Courage program has helped many survivors discover their own strengths and helped them develop skills to build new lives. While few educational programs can offer a week-long wilderness trip, many of the principles of this program are applicable to virtually all education programs. As instructors, we occupy a position of power and must be vigilant in maintaining our boundaries and resisting the role of rescuer that may mean re-victimization for the survivor.

Moon Joyce