WOMEN'S EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING COALITION

Initially convened to plan a meeting with Flora MacDonald, this group has since decided to meet monthly. The coalition is comprised of 16 different organizations, including: CCLOW, Women Skills, NAC, Vancouver YWCA, College-Institute Educators' Association, Status of Women Committee, Surrey-Delta Immigrant Services Society, Women in Trades Association, Society for Canadian Women in Science & Technology (SCWIST), etc.

Since our June 14 meeting with Flora MacDonald, we have held three follow-up meetings with the CEIC Regional Office. The first involved the Director General and four other staff from the B.C./Yukon Regional Office. We raised concerns we'd shared with the Minister, discussed the Canadian Job Strategy (CJS) programs, and means of ongoing consultation. Two smaller meetings have subsequently been held with CEIC regional staff concerning the Job Entry program, and that program's constraints on developing the needed bridging programs for women in B.C. We have obtained the CJS program guidelines, and will continue to monitor how well those programs serve women's training and employment needs.

The Coalition has been invited by the CEIC regional office to meet with its Interface Committee on Women. This is an internal CEIC committee of Affirmative Action, Counseling, and other staff to consider how the regional office is meeting its targets for women's training and employment. It makes proposals to senior management, and meets quarterly. Our first joint meeting will likely take place in late October.

U.N. DECADE REGIONAL WORKSHOP(S)

During the fall, a number of Vancouver events were held to follow up the Nairobi Conference on the U.N. Decade for Women. Olga Kempo spoke to an audience at Capilano College on October 1. This was followed on October 20 by a "Post-Nairobi Forum", sponsored by the YWCA and the National Council of Jewish Women of Canada. The Forum featured presentations by women who attended the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) Forum in

Nairobi, and women who attended the official governmental conference. The video collective "Women in Focus" is also considering a "Nairobi follow-up" event.

As CCLOW'S contribution to the "post-Nairobi " reflections and follow-up action, CCLOW-B.C. held a series of workshops in Victoria and Vancouver from November 21-23. Lisa Avedon, CCLOW'S representative at the Nairobi Forum, was the featured speaker at these workshops. (These sessions will be reported in the March 1986 issue of WEDF.)

YUKON REPORT by Lillian T. Nakamura Maguire

To open our season's activities, the Yukon chapter of CCLOW was involved in sponsoring a panel discussion and display at the annual Women's Conference held in Whitehorse. The conference attracted about 150 women from throughout the Territory. The panel discussion focused on four Yukon women who recently traveled or worked in other countries and provided their perspective on women's work, learning opportunities and personal lives in Nicaragua, Russia, Sierra Leone and India.

As follow-up to the panel discussion, we have planned various informal learning opportunities featuring women speaking about their experiences living, working or traveling in another country. This monthly activity will make more women aware of CCLOW and its activities, and as well provide a networking evening for us.

The executive have decided as one of the goals this year is to increase our membership in Yukon. Therefore we have taken every opportunity to promote its activities at the Women's Conference and Yukon Teachers' Association conference.

We will continue to promote our book "Yukon Women" within the public schools. Because of work commitments of our members, the use of resource women to act as speakers or to provide demonstrations related to nontraditional work, will be somewhat limited this year.