For others, it focused on other women's reality - particularly the many small but often insurmountable obstacles women may face when they are trying to get to a program. Women talked about this learning in practical terms, in terms of being able now to watch for and anticipate difficulties.

It means thinking of all those possible barriers, what they are, what is there. Are there women and are they participating and why aren't they participating? Those are questions that will definitely come to my mind every time I do things. (Amele Zewge, Toronto ALFA Centre)

They also talked about the frustration of seeing the barriers women face and being unable to do much about them.

What can you do if a woman is home with three children and she's on social services, other than take the money out of your own pocket and pay for a babysitter. Go and pick her up and bring her to the program, whatever program it is, and then bring her home after. What can you do? (Cathy Short, Rabbittown Learners' Program)

Several women talked about developing a new sense of the boundaries they have to maintain if they are going to continue with one-on-one work, especially work with women struggling constantly for sheer survival.

I've learned more about the boundaries that I don't have and what I need for myself. I do a lot of the one-on-one student support things. Sometimes I take it home with me and that can be a real issue - being at home, wondering if the woman is going back to her abusive partner. (Pat MacNeil, Beat the Street)

They also talked about the need, on a structural level, to hold politicians accountable beyond the level of rhetoric for the way that women's issues and the issues of poverty are continually denied and ignored.

• What do you think has been key to your learning?

Almost all the women said that the key to their learning came from having the opportunity to reflect on their work within a structured project. Having the financial support, the resources of the coordinating researchers, and the expectation that they would document their experience helped women move from "doing" to "thinking about doing."

If someone doesn't encourage me to do the thinking piece it can be easy for me to leave behind sitting down at the keyboard and pounding out reflections, reading extra stuff when I really haven't got time. (Diane Eastman, Brandon Friendship Centre)