The twelve programs, their communities,
and their woman-positive activities

Twelve distinct and different programs became involved in this research. They provide services in large urban centres and in the urban/rural mix of prairie and northern towns and cities. They are on the east and west coasts, on the Hudson Bay, and Lake Ontario. Four programs are located in community colleges, a fifth is based in a federation of labour, the sixth in a prison. The remaining six community based programs operate in a range of locations: on the street, in store-fronts, in public housing, in a friendship centre, and in a community centre.

These programs have a variety of mandates and organizational structures. Some of the programs already included women-only groups. Others had never before considered working with women as a particular student group. The students in these programs ranged from those involved in basic literacy to those preparing to write their high school equivalency exams. Their involvement in the decision-making processes of their programs varied widely.

The women who acted as researchers also varied. With two early exceptions, they all worked as staff or volunteers in their programs. Several had been learners in those or other programs before becoming staff. They ranged in age from 23 to 56, in academic background from less than grade 12 to postgraduate degrees, and in experience from one to twenty years. Most of them are white women.

At the Toronto ALFA Centre, a staff collective of four women work with approximately 60 volunteers to provide one-to-one and group literacy work for students who primarily have an Afro-Caribbean background. The collective and students decided to form a women's group partly to deal with some women's reluctance to attend other groups and partly to look at issues such as sexual harassment within the program. They decided to document what happens in an organization that decides to provide a safe place for women to upgrade their literacy skills.

The set of four pamphlets which they produced are included in this book: Why do women need a women's group? What happens in our women's group? What do people say about the women's group? What is sexual harassment? This last pamphlet contains a sexual harassment policy for the program. An anti-racism project has also been started at the Toronto ALFA Centre.

The Brandon Friendship Centre in Brandon, Manitoba, has an academic upgrading program for Native, Métis, and white students. Two staff work with 12 to 15 students, both one-to-one and in groups. Some women in this program decided to focus on childhood sexual abuse by re-writing a pamphlet from a local agency that provides counseling. The women's group - called "CCLOW" - began meeting one morning a week. The academic and personal development of the women involved led to it becoming the core curriculum, five mornings a week. The instructor, Diane Eastman, wrote a policy paper, "Gender, culture and personal experiences that get in the way of learning: The need for core funding for projects," that outlines the curriculum she developed and suggests that core funding should allow literacy programs to pay attention to all aspects of students' lives.