| |
"I
remember coming back after being away for two weeks at
Christmas. I
purposefully asked WISH staff if anyone had died or disappeared
over that
time. When it seemed like no one had, I relaxed. Later I overheard someone
talking about M. being dead. It turned out she had died early in December
from heart failure in the hospital and no one had gotten around to telling
us. She was someone that came every week to the Learning Centre. She was
31
years old."
- Instructor – Weekly Reports |
The
memorials were important. We learned a lot about woman at their memorials
because their whole lives were present. Sometimes,
we were able to offer a
woman's poetry or artwork to her grieving family and friends. As instructors
and
participants and WISH staff, we also turned our sadness and anger to making
change. It caused the development of the Missing Women's Committee and
the increased participation in the Women's March. We continued to advocate
for
more resources and options for sex-trade workers. Currently, there is a
campaign to
build a facility with 24-hour services available to women in the Downtown
Eastside.
| 4.3.6. |
Defining and Measuring Success |
We are just beginning to create
an analysis of success as instructors at
the WISH
Learning Centre. We work within a constantly changing environment. For
that reason it is difficult at times to have a sense of progress. We
have learned
to define progress in a broader way, for example a woman's ability to
stay focused or to
function with the group, or to come on a regular basis. We now have a
core group of learners who come regularly to the Learning Centre full of expectations of being
stimulated and learning something. We have also created collective structures like
the newsletter and the WAG and some history as an active Learning Centre. |
