For those who have been following along, I've uploaded the final reports which complete the 
WISE book. They represent the culmination of an intense project which was done by low-income 
women in my community. 

As much as the preceding portions of the book - the story behind the project and the stories 
told by the women themselves - are compelling, the first report reflects the women's own 
assessments and hopes for the future and contains shocking and unexpected facts. The second 
report completes the book with the women's recommendations and is full of surprises, 
particularly in light of the preceding stories and the Issues report. It stunningly challenges 
assumptions concerning where the solutions truly lie and who the real "stakeholders" are or 
should be. 

The first report is hard to take. Throughout the year I was doing the project, it felt like I was 
sitting on a bomb and the need to keep what I was learning to myself, to tell no one, built a 
steady internal pressure. At times, I felt ready to explode. It didn't help that I was struggling 
with my own severe breakdown. So it was a relief to get the report out, although the session 
during which I read the final version to the women before adding it to the waiting manuscript, 
was difficult; my voice broke several times. (Which is why I couldn't carry through with 
completing the entire book in podcast form. Stopped after the last story, leaving the Issues and 
Recommendations reports to be delivered in electronic print form instead.) 

http://tinyurl.com/dmu5ez

Ocean
--
Book: Policies of Exclusion, Poverty & Health: Stories from the front
Podcast Channel: http://bcseawalker.podbean.com/
Blog: Challenging the Commonplace - and other irreverent activities
http://challengingthecommonplace.blogspot.com/

Support the BC Citizens Assembly's Recommendation on Electoral Reform.
On May 12, vote for Better Democracy: Vote for  BC-STV.

For information, visit http://www.stv.ca/
Mid-Islanders, see also http://yes4stv-midvi.blogspot.com/

To manage subscriptions/passwords, or view archives, go to http://listserv.yorku.ca/archives/click4hp.html . [log in to unmask] is run in collaboration with Health Nexus: http://www.healthnexus.ca/index_eng.php