Rather than teaching an empowering form of facilitation, such training generally reinforces the traditional separation of the helper and helped.

Although the "Survival Skills" material was considered useful, few trainees wanted to give those exact workshops. Most considered the manual useful as a resource to enrich and balance the groups in which they were already interested. A few women have offered this series of workshops in their communities and have reported a good response.

Half of the 200 manuals sold have been to women in the training groups. Many of the others have gone to B.C. communities outside the Vancouver area. Our impact in the interior has been limited because of the expenses of flying facilitators in to do the training. Although we haven't received feedback on copies sold by mail, we suspect the manual is more useful when combined with a training workshop. One way around this accessibility problem might be to organize a workshop in the interior so that trainers could then deliver the training workshop in their area.

Sandy Berman and I have found the project exciting. Through our contact with a great variety of women from the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley areas, we have been very heartened by their dedication to assisting women to take control of their own lives. We have seen diverse groups of women successfully overcome differences and achieve common unity and knowledge.

These women are now better equipped to handle difficulties and conflicts in their own groups. We are also encouraged by the number of women who want to learn democratic, feminist group-leading skills. And finally, we have been constantly challenged to examine our own values and directions.

Maggie Ziegler is a feminist psychotherapist with a private practice in Vancouver and for many years has been a facilitator for a variety of groups. Her partner in this project, Sandy Berman, also has extensive group facilitation experience and currently works as a private consultant specializing in staff training and program development.

For more information about this project or on group training in this area please write to: Maggie Ziegler, R. R. # 4, Fairway Drive, C. 20, Ganges, B.C. VOS 1EO.

The Survival Skills for Women facilitator's manual can be ordered for $15.00 through: Department of Continuing Education, Kwantlen College, 5840 Cedarbridge Way, Richmond, B.C. V6X 2A7.

Oops! In the last issue we neglected to list the names of the two books reviewed in this section. They were On Employment Equity: A Critique of the Abella Royal Commission Report by Walter Block and Michael Walker, Focus No. 17, Fraser Institute, Vancouver: 1985, reviewed by Alfred Hunter and Margaret Denton, and Report of the Task Force on Child Care, Katie Cooke (Chairperson), Supply and Services, Ottawa: 1986, reviewed by Patricia Morris.