ACROSS THE COUNTRY
NOUVELLES DU PAYS

NEW BRUNSWICK REPORT
by Joan MacFarland

We have concentrated our efforts in the last few months on a feasibility study of a re-entry program for women in non-traditional occupations under the Canadian Jobs Strategy. We hired a researcher for a six week period, during which she searched for potential training place hosts, off-site courses and participants.

We located over one hundred potential participants. The only training place hosts we managed to find were the local mall and big department stores for training as security guards/loss prevention personnel. This does seem to be an area where there is a shortage of trained people and it is a non-traditional area for women. Since the training place hosts wish to give the actual job training on-site, the off-site courses to be given through the New Brunswick Community College would consist of life skills and career orientation. These would last six weeks while the training on the job would be for three months. After that, hopefully, our participants would be able to find employment using the training received. We submitted our profile April 15 and are awaiting a response from CEIC.

Our local branch met February 5. We heard a progress report from our re-entry researcher and reports from two of our members who had represented us at provincial conferences. One was on women and Entrepreneurship and the other on Adult Literacy. We also networked and had an enjoyable social evening.

At the February meeting, we decided to look at the literacy situation of women in New Brunswick. We have learned subsequently, from attending the NB Literacy Council workshop, that while ninety per cent of the literacy tutors are women, ninety per cent of the pupils are men. We will take on an investigation of this situation as a local group project.

We are in touch with Maurice J. Duguay, the regional Local Advisory Council (LAC) co-ordinator, and he is supplying us with lists of participants of the LAC's for the province. So far, approximately 30% of members named have been female. However, in talking to some of the women members, we have learned that the meetings are very tedious. They need encouragement to continue their involvement.

Three of our members will be attending the National Action Committee (NAC) annual general meeting in Ottawa, May 30 - June 2. Our New Brunswick CCLOW group is a new member of NAC and thus will be subsidized for this first meeting. We are excited about it. We plan a meeting/pot-luck dinner for the end of June.

NOVA SCOTIA REPORT
by Marjorie Johnson

We are very pleased to report that our application to the Secretary of State has been approved. Peggy Mahon was appointed in March to assist in the development of CCLOW in four designated areas of Nova Scotia. Peggy has a strong commitment to women's issues and extensive involvement in adult education, and program development. She has been busy meeting with women in the target areas and liaising with other organizations to promote CCLOW. The possibility of a Life Skills Coach Training Workshop, during the summer, is being investigated.

We are very concerned with the decrease in institutional training sponsored by C.E.I.C. and the freeze of Canadian Job Strategy funds. We are monitoring the effects through several of our members on Local Advisory Councils.

The Metro Group continues to meet monthly. The Eastern Shore Group (E.S.L.O.W.) is very active, providing courses and workshops locally, and attending conferences and meetings provincially. They provide a great model of rural networking.