The WISE management team is exploring other funding sources through the federal and provincial governments. "The reason we submitted our original proposal to Innovations was because our idea did not fit the criteria for other Canadian Jobs Strategy programs," says Dorothy. "This has not changed. Most funding sources are not flexible enough for us to maintain WISE as it now exists."

The WISE team has learned that a flexible, barrier-free bridging program that allows women to develop personal awareness, upgrade academic skills, explore a wide range of occupational choices, and establish realistic, long-term goals for themselves works. "But," continues Dorothy, "there are no readily identifiable funding mechanisms for such programs to operate on an ongoing basis. Clearly, if bridging programs for women are going to exist, the current policy and program criteria for funding education and training in Canada need to be changed to accommodate WISE and similar bridging programs for women."

As we celebrate CCLOW's tenth anniversary, it is clear that we have much work to do in the years ahead. There is a need not only to document the success of bridging programs for women's education and training, but to advocate for government policy and funding that fosters the development of bridging programs for women across the country. As one WISE participant suggested:

The whole mentality has got to change. Everyone's mentality has got to change when it comes to the subject of educating women.

Sylvia Ash and Helen King are on staff with the WISE Program, Sylvia as Instructor and Helen as Co-ordinator. Dorothy Robbins is the Newfoundland Director of CCLOW and a founding member of the committee which initiated the WISE program. Gladys Watson is Information and Resources Co-ordinator with CCLOW.

Carol Ann Rogers-Parrell

1. WISE participants quoted in the article
   were attending the program in May of 1988.

Carol Ann Rogers-Parrell

Former participant in WISE program

When I read the Evening Telegram one evening I discovered an advertisement that sounded too good to be true. My first reaction was "What's the catch?" Women Interested in Successful Employment-that certainly described me! I had been a hairdresser for several years. Working long hours at minimum wage or on commission basis did not provide adequate support for a single parent. With limited income the only housing available to me was on the outskirts of the city. Isolated from family and friends, I found that the much needed emotional support was, for geographical reasons, unavailable.

The search for a better, more satisfying position became a daily event. WISE provided the means to see my dream materialize. Without the necessary skills, obtaining better employment was not feasible. Working through the detailed units that the program offered helped me to see this and to realize that the route to reach my goal was through a university education. I am presently enrolled in a degree program at Memorial University of Newfoundland with the hopes of a career in journalism.