BC Coalition of Women's Centres



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The Herstory, Risk and Survival of BC Women's Centres
A Discussion Paper  |  May 2003
   

V.  Women’s Centres Working Together




>> What can Women’s Centres do collectively to help other Women’s Centres?

The BCCWC Steering Committee compiled information regarding how Women’s Centres can collectively help other Women’s Centres.  This was broken down to two areas.

The first main area of collectivity revolves around resource sharing.  This includes a coalition website, which was launched on March 8th 2002 and is updated on a regular basis.  The centres can also share research information and skills to expand experience and their knowledge base.  One of the main ways this is done now, and will continue to be done, is through the BCCWC list-serve, which provides a fast, relatively easy and cost-effective way to share these resources and skills.  The Committee also felt it would be valuable to create a central archive in which information would be readily available.  One of the important ways that Women’s Centres can help each other is by sharing their successes and problems.  In this way, Women’s Centres can focus on the tools that will bring them success rather than each Centre independently “reinventing the wheel.”

The second area in which Women’s Centres can help each other is though education and awareness.  This could include developing and delivering workshops on various topics including coalition building and anti-oppression.  Within this area, Centres could share anti-oppression tools or other resource tools that might be useful.  Lastly, the Steering Committee believes that it is important to provide education, awareness and understanding of the importance and value of the Coalition, and the progress, which it has made.  Women’s Centre, though the BCCWC, can also help each other by providing a collective, feminist voice as well as coordinating and implementing province-wide actions and press releases.  This collective, provincial voice can often gain more attention and power than a lone, regional voice of an individual centre focusing on these areas. Women’s Centres can increase their level of support to each other, which will prove to be invaluable not only throughout the next year, but in the long-term. 


If you have questions/comments for BCCWC, please e-mail us at bcwomen@telus.net  For other contact information, please go to our Information Page

BC Coalition of Women's Centres British Columbia, Canada
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