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Tara agrees. “Some people know some things, and some
people know other things ... it seems to balance out. Some people are really
good at explaining, some are really good at asking questions, or at noticing
when you've made a miscalculation. We've also all been involved in most of the
process. For instance, we all sat down and figured out how to do the forms,
which is the whole structural process.”
The three of us are sprawled around a wooden table, discussing
the project. Shawn and Tara pounce on the cookies left over from my talk with
Billie. Apparently, hard physical labor builds up quite an appetite.
“So, what happens now?” I ask. “The boardwalk was
like Step One,” says Shawn a, squinting in the sun. “Then there was
that huge pit we had to dig. Now, we're getting into forms ... the cement, the
sandwhich seems like Step Two.”
"How are your muscles?”
“Well, the shoveling and
the wheel borrowing was the big thing, not the [optional one day per week]
weight training. My body's never been so strong,” Shawn a asserts.
“So, are you going to continue doing carpentry work after
the project?”
“I won't get ticketed [licensed], but I want to
continue,” says Shawn a thoughtfully. “Not to say I'm not going to be
a writer and an artist ... that gets to happen at the same time.”
“So, you're not going to be a Carpenter with a capital C?” I ask
innocently.
Tara looks at me as if amused by my ignorance. “I'm going
to be a Carpenter capital C with no ticket!” Behind her the other women
are busily wheel borrowing sand and I realize she's right. “Wanna see my
muscles?” she asks, grinning proudly and ready to roll up her sleeves.
“Of course,” I say. My tape recording of the
conversation dissolves into whoops, catcalls and howls.
After finishing the interviews I say good-bye to the rest
of YWCC, thank them, and leave them to begin their work laying the foundations
of the eco-pavilion. As I walk my bike out of Strathcona Community Garden and
the traffic noises of Prior Street once again wash over me, I have the sense of
re-entering “the real world.” But the Young Women Creating Change
project is a significant addition to "the real world" and to the neighborhood
in which it is situated. In the Downtown East side, where so many women suffer
abuse, illness and addiction early in life, where positive alternatives for
women rarely exist, the project is providing opportunities for young women to
lay foundations. It is providing opportunities to create change in a world
where change is most certainly due.
Lisa Meshu, is a writer of poems and other non-
fiction and was recently published in Fireweed and Potlatch, She
is currently working on a literacy project with a group of amazing and
inspiring women
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Faire changer les
choses
par Lisa Mesbur
À Vancouver, Young Women
Creating Change est un programme de menuiserie qui a été
financé grâce à une subvention des Services à la
jeunesse du gouvernement fédéral: dans un grand jardin
communautaire, aménagé sur un terrain où étaient
entreposés dans le temps des déchets industriels, un groupe de
jeunes femmes âgées de 18 à 25 ans a été
embauché pour construire un “écouvillonner”, un
bâtiment sain sur le plan écologique où les jardiniers
peuvent se rencontrer, échanger des renseignements, entreposer leurs
outils et rincer leurs produits. Le projet, que surveillaient deux
coordonnatrices et une menuisière qualifiée, visait à
permettre aux jeunes femmes qui y participaient d'acquérir de
l'expérience en menuiserie et en construction et donc des
compétences professionnelles commercialisables. La plupart des
participantes habitent à Strathcona, quartier situé dans la
partie est de Vancouver et le plus pauvre du Canada.
Le projet a pris forme en novembre
1995, lorsque les jeunes femmes se sont rencontrées pour faire
connaissance et jeter les règlements de base du projet. Elles ont
commencé par apprendre à se servir d'outils manuels, puis
d'outils électriques; par la suite, elles ont construit des
boîtes, une passerelle autour du jardin et des bancs avant de s'attaquer
à la construction du pavillon lui-même. L'un des objectifs
étant de ne pas endommager l'environnement, presque tous les travaux de
creusement ont été effectués à la main. De plus, du
matériel recyclé et sans danger pour le milieu naturel a
été utilisé dans la mesure du possible.
Toutes les femmes tirent une grande
fierté du travail qu'elles ont accompli et des compétences
qu'elles ont acquises. À la fin du projet, toutes avaient l'intention de
poursuivre une carrière dans la menuiserie ou dans la construction. Dans
ce quartier défavorisé où tant de femmes sont
maltraitées, ou toxicomanes à un très jeune âge, ce
genre de projet donne l'occasion à des jeunes femmes de changer le cours
des choses. |
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CCLOW COLUMN
“But I'm Not a
Therapist” Literacy Work with Survivors of Abuse
A new CCLOW project will examine the impact of violence on
literacy learning and how issues of abuse can be addressed in literacy
programs. Literacy workers, who are not trained as counselors or therapists,
often feel inadequate to respond to the needs of their students who are
survivors of abuse from either their past or their present situations. The
percentage of learners in a literacy program who have experienced violence can
be very high, even as much as 100%, since violence is often the reason that
learning has been disrupted or thwarted.
CCLOW's project has three objectives: to study the ways in
which women's experiences of abuse impact on literacy learning; to examine
practices of literacy work to explore how they might impede taking up questions
of violence; and to explore ways to address the impacts of abuse through
literacy teaching and in the design of literacy programs. Research will involve
both library research and interviews with literacy workers, literacy learners,
and counselors/therapists from across the country.
The researcher and coordinator of this project is Dr.
Jenny Horseman who has an extensive background in the area of women and
literacy and who has served on CCLOW's Literacy Committee for many years. This
project has received funding support from the National Literacy Secretariat.
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