Involvement in the CCLOW research project

Anne Moore received a notice about CCLOW's women and literacy research in the mail. She attended a public discussion of the first phase in Toronto in the spring of 1991. After this, she became the first program worker to contact CCLOW about participating in the second phase. After many years of working in community-based literacy programs, Anne was interested in spending some time reflecting and writing about her experiences of trying to work in woman-positive ways.

The woman-positive activity

Anne discussed the research with the women in the staff collective and with the women in the women's writing group that was just beginning. She played them a tape that was produced during the first phase of this research and they agreed to take part. Monique Beaulieu, a participant in the women's group and a student active in the program on many levels, became the second contact woman for the project.

The women staff at Action Read identified several activities that they had already had planned for the year ahead. There was the women's group itself and the collection of writing they planned to publish by its members. They also planned a second book about one woman's experience of abuse and survival during her childhood. Overall, the staff try to incorporate a woman-positive approach in all the program activities.

Anne was personally involved in an on-going dialogue with a woman literacy worker in another community. They were exploring some of the difficult questions raised by the ways in which literacy and abuse become overlapping areas of concern for women staff, volunteers, and students in programs.

As part of the CCLOW research, Monique planned to talk with students in the program about how they experience the women's group - either as members or non-members. One thing she wanted to find out was how students are affected by the strong bond created between the six members of the women's group.

Anne did some of the same exploring with staff. One of her questions was how having a women-only project affected the other activities in the program; the one-to-one volunteer program, other small groups, the family project, and the probation and parole project. She wanted to spend some time reflecting on her own experiences as a woman staff member working with women students in a field where funding policies are not necessarily woman-positive. She was also interested in having some time to explore these issues with other literacy and social justice workers.