THE PARTICIPANTS

Trainees in the program have come from diverse backgrounds. They include women involved with women's centers, women's job training and re-entry programs, community social service agencies, transition houses, and women's health groups. Native women, poor women from the down- town east side of Vancouver, middle-class suburban women from the Fraser Valley, committed feminist activists and women largely unfamiliar with feminist concepts have also participated in the program.

Women came to the training workshops for different reasons: some had participated in groups and found the group process and support so useful that they wanted to learn skills to help others; some were already facilitating groups but felt there were gaps in both their skills and their confidence; some wanted to build links with others interested in the same concepts; and a few came because they wanted to use the "Survival Skills for Women" material in their communities.

EVALUATION

Based on participant evaluations the training appears to have been highly successful. Participants repeatedly stated that they learned more than they had anticipated and were challenged and stimulated. The facilitators were rated highly and some women suggested to their friends and colleagues that they take the training. They also consistently rated the workshop materials (i.e., the facilitator's handbook) as being very useful.

While some women finished the training feeling that they were not yet ready to facilitate groups, or that they had less interest in group leading than they had originally thought, they left feeling good about themselves and with a clearer idea about the directions in which they wanted to move. Others were able to articulate their strengths and areas which needed work, and to identify how the workshop would affect their facilitation style. Still others left confident and ready to plunge in.

We believe that training groups have been successful for several reasons:

• the approach to training attempted to employ feminist principles of equalizing power and also was influenced by popular education techniques;
  
  
• group members were made to feel valuable as their expertise and knowledge was sought out and used;
  
  
• active participation was encouraged through practice sessions, the use of the training group itself as a resource for understanding group dynamics, and on-going evaluations of the work- shop;
  
  
• time was spent identifying personal values and biases relating to women and group-leading.

Group participants felt that they were treated with respect and valued, but also that they were confronted and expected to challenge their limits. A number of women commented: "Now I understand the difference between facilitating and leading."

We are convinced, however, that the deeper reason for success is that the original perception of need was sound. We see women in both rural and urban communities decrying the lack of information and training of the type we are giving. Women are desperate for group facilitation training that focuses on women and repeatedly ask where they can get more. Women who are not eligible or not interested in formal higher education in counseling or psychology find a lack of training in local community geared to the lay worker. The little training available is not usually aimed specifically at problems facing women, and lacks a feminist analysis.