6

Who we are What we did.

At the beginning of phase two of this research, advisory committee members, CCLOW staff, and the researcher discussed a variety of guidelines for program outreach and selection. The four programs that participated in phase one had first priority for phase two. The second priority was regional representation. The third was representation of program characteristics, including (neither exclusively nor in any particular order of priority) rural/ urban, north/ south, age, First Nations, employability enhancement funding, " volunteer-based, women of colour, public housing, women with disabilities, immigrant women, women working on issues of violence against women, and programs that identified as feminist.

Over the past nine months, Betty-Ann Lloyd had met many women in Halifax, Fredericton, Toronto, Kingston, and Saskatoon through presentations and workshops based on the research. A variety of national and provincial literacy publications had published material about phase one that included information about phase two. (For example, Lloyd, 1991b, 1991c, 1992a, 1992b, 1992c) All members of CCLOW had received information about the research, as had everyone on the mailing list of another CCLOW women and literacy project (1990): Telling Our Stories Our Way: A. guide to good Canadian materials for women learning to read.

CCLOW continued this outreach, sending information to women on the mailing list of the Feminist Literacy Workers Network, all provincial adult basic education organizations and literacy coalitions, First Nations organizations, and feminist newspapers. Advisory committee members added any organizations or individuals they thought should be contacted.

At the end of phase one, during a meeting of members of the advisory committee, CCLOW had decided not to solicit participation from English as a Second Language programs, mother tongue literacy programs, and multilingual programs. Recognizing many of the racist assumptions embedded in government and institutional funding policies and within the literacy community, the organization agreed to advocate for separate research to be conducted by members of these programs.

Also, because CCLOW functions as an English language organization and because there is a francophone equivalent of CCLOW, it was decided not to solicit French language programs. English language programs in Quebec received the same outreach information as in other provinces.