NEW BRUNSWICK REGIONAL REPORT by Joan McFarland
N.B. Director, CCLOW

NEW BRUNSWICK CCLOW MEMBERS

The CCLOW-NB branch held its first fall meeting September 5. Prior to the meeting, a determined effort was made to recruit new members. As it turned out, almost all who attended the meeting were new or potentially new members.

One of our major activities have been in exploring the possibility of sponsoring or co-sponsoring a re-entry program for women under the government's Canadian Job Strategy program. We have had numerous meetings with EIC officials as well as the two other possible, local cosponsors, Women Working with Immigrant Women and Third Thursday Network. As a next step, we may be applying for "pre-proposal development" monies to prepare a profile of a re-entry program for EIC's assessment.

In connection with the Job Strategy program, we have written to the manager of the Fredericton EIC office and our local MP concerning adequate female representation on the proposed Local Advisory Councils.

We have received responses from both letters. We also made a complaint to the local CEC office on behalf of a woman who claimed that she had been discouraged from entering a training program in a non-traditional occupation. We wrote a letter and later went down to the office to discuss the situation with the officers there.

On September 20-22, the NB Women's Network held its "Conference 85". One of the activities of the Conference was a "Take Back the Night" march. The CCLOW-NB branch, as a member of the Network, participated in the conference. We had a display table where our brochure and publications list were available. I was one of the workshop leaders, and my topic was the Nairobi conference. This was the sixth time that I had given a talk on Nairobi since returning in July. I have also written an article about Nairobi for the CCLOW special report on that subject.

Our branch has just now become a member of NAC. At Conference 85, we were able to meet with Kit Holmwood, the Maritimes representative for NAC, where she welcomed our group to the organization. We have recently also registered with the Fredericton Volunteers Bureau.

As a final note, we have invited Lisa Avedon to Fredericton, December 1, to give a workshop and slide show on Nairobi. We are all looking forward to it.