Uncovering fear and isolation in Rabbittown:
a woman positive literacy project

Frances Ennis with Shirley Hickey, Bella Bidiscombe, Sandra Cadwell, Betty Jackson, and Cathy short Rabbittown Learners program , St. John's, NF

For the first couple of years most of the participants in the Rabbittown Learners program were women . Then we noticed a shift: the women stopped coming and more men became involved. We were concerned and puzzled about this change and we wondered what was going on in women's lives to bring about this shift Because we are located in a public housing community and most of the women learners and workers live in that community, we thought we should be able to find out what was happening.

In November 1991 three students and five staff members came together for a work shops to examine barriers to women's participation in literacy programs. By the end of the day we concluded that violence and a lack of support in women's lives were the two major barriers that stop them from coming to literacy programs.

We identified an action plan to encourage more women to participate in the program and three months later we had twenty women learners. However they were all referrals from two social service agencies in the city . We continued to wonder, "Where are the women from the immediate community?" and "why aren't they coming to the centre?"

The Canadian Congress for Learning Opportunities for women (CCLOW) was about to begin phase two of their research on women and literacy. Since we had participated in phase one, they asked us to become one of the twelve programs to carry out a women positive activity and document what happened as a result.

This came at an ideal time. We decided that our woman-positive activity would be to somehow connect with women in the community to find out why more of them were not participating in programs at the Centre. We had another workshops to decide exactly what we wanted to do. Participants in this workshop included two women learners and the Rabbittown staff.

At one point in the workshop we divided into small groups to make a collage of photos from different events and activities at the centre and to write captions for the photos after each group shared their collage, everyone was asked to identify key words that reflected the feelings and emotions evident in the photos. This led to a discussion and recognition of the strong sense of belonging, support, and comfort people feel here at the Centre.

Frances Ennis with Rabbittown staff