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New Brunswick Re-entry
Project
Five Views: The
New Brunswick Re-entry Project
by Joan
McFarland
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Graduating
Class, June 6, 1987:
Back: Ruth O'Leary, Cindy Gallant, Bernice Smith,
Rosalie Robichaud, Cheryl Mclntyre, Karen MacKay, Shaila Kakade
Front:
Darlene Hall, Jean Legere, Doris Paul |
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CCLOW's New Brunswick network completed its first re-entry
project last May. To be eligible at the time, a woman had to have been out of
the labor force for at least three years. The successful program ran for 20
weeks, cost $75,000 and combined classes with on-the-job training. Fifteen
women were trained in non-traditional jobs: security, loss-prevention, plant
nursery and printing. Here are five views of the project from some of the women
involved. |
JOAN MCFARLAND: N.B. DIRECTOR
OF CCLOW
This was
CCLOW N.B.'s first major project. It was a big undertaking and we're glad we
did it despite our frustration with the way the Canadian Jobs Strategy is set
up at the local level. We feel that our program was a success, that it made a
difference to the lives of the fifteen participants and to our own. This was
reflected in our graduation ceremony - a thrilling day for everyone involved.
Getting the Grant
In the summer of 1985, shortly after the Canadian Jobs
Strategy was announced, CCLOW, along with other women's organizations, was
invited to a meeting arranged by the Fredericton office of the Canadian
Employment and Immigration Commission. We were all encouraged to apply to
become coordinators of a re-entry project. CCLOW was the only group to prepare
a proposal.
Joan McFarland |
But before we could even begin, we had to design a program
and find potential participants and training-place hosts. This was impossible
because we were working as volunteers while also holding down full-time jobs or
study programs.
We explained this to CEIC
and they suggested that we apply for an "organizational capacity" grant to hire
someone to do the preparation. We received $5000 in January and submitted a
brief outline of the project in March. Our full proposal was approved at the
end of November and the participants started in January. The original starting
date had been April 1986. Delays made arrangements with training-place hosts,
teachers. and participants difficult to make. |