• Computer Tackles
  Homeless Woman
• Talking About Development
  
• PAR-L
  
• Battered Women's
  Support Services
  
  

The following is my story. I am trained as an Educational Psychologist from Detroit, Michigan. In 1994, although I made the decision to do so, I felt compelled to resign from my position, of seventeen years, due to the onset of Schizophrenia. The fact, coupled with a long series of financial upsets ultimately resulted in Homelessness for me.

Very much in denial, I would not surrender, at the request of Social Workers, to the government label required for financial assistance. I could not bring myself to "publicly", as far as I was concerned, admit to being emotionally handicapped believing it would destroy any chance of returning to my profession. As it was, colleagues were the least sympathetic to my illness. Angered and hurt beyond all reason I simply walked out on a State that had always been home. I hitch hiked across America headed for Seattle, Washington to visit with some friends who I hoped might be able to help me. I arrived in Seattle on June 1 1995, with nothing other than what I was wearing and a backpack with a passport, doctoral thesis, transcripts etc. I was both exhausted and delusional. Too tired to find my friends, I admitted myself to one of Seattle's largest hospitals requesting psychiatric assistance. There I became acquainted with my options. It was apparent that I was in no condition to find employment much less maintain it; and I needed shelter and clothing as well as food. My only option was a shelter for homeless women. Long term or permanent hospitalization (which at that time I almost preferred over a shelter existence) for the mentally ill is reserved for the most dysfunctional of clients.

At the shelter I was once again asked to admit on paper that I was emotionally disabled, so that I could get financial assistance . This time I agreed to do it. At the time I could no longer imagine finding the wherewithal to get back into my profession.

Today I am grateful for that decision. My monthly allowance, an equation with my salary and work time, is very comfortable and has allowed me to stabilize in my own apartment and take the time to heal. My symptoms have disappeared through fine medical intervention.

While in the shelter I was not entirely oblivious to the homeless women around me: their stories and problems. I had left, or was forced out of a yuppie lifestyle with successful yuppie friends and all the attendant toys and privileges that go with it. I held the pervasive attitude that "one can't really help another, only yourself" so go for "me". The "me" philosophy of the 80's and 90's. I was shocked (again) into a shift of consciousness back to a more idealistic me, that we had best help one another or this whole thing is going to be pulled apart. When I fell from grace, so to speak, I faced an attitude of "sorry kid, that's the breaks - we all have our burdens and have to stand on our own two feet -do not expect anything from us". If there hadn't been people who felt otherwise I might be dead or more closely truthful, in prison for some angry action taken out of complete frustration.

Knowing and reflecting on all of this, I decided to return what I could and give over my skills to an organization known as WHEEL (Women's Housing and Enhancement League). It is composed of dedicated homeless and formerly homeless women as well as one paid staff member, who advocated for women's needs in a variety of ways, to the larger community.

Out of WHEEL there was formed a group, now autonomous, that shared a vision of introducing training and jobs skills to homeless women via computer . The computer was recognized as a great resource tool for such reasons as a woman being able to access information of importance to her directly, without it being filtered through Agencies, to increase a woman's self confidence, and to upgrade skills for a possible future job, including being able to participate in the growing world of distance learning. Word was put out to the community that the Women's Homeless Network (WHN) had been formed and was seeking hardware donations. The response was mixed. A couple of companies donated several computers (mainly 286's) with printers and modems. I was one of the first lucky ones to get a computer from the WHN, a 386 with printer and modem. It was part of the vision to provide individual computers to those homeless women housed and unable to afford one on their own. It is an endless source of connection to the world at large to me. My income, while comfortable, does not leave much discretionary monies for entertainment. My computer opens doors to the world and gives me a chance to stay sharp with respect to writing skills.

The Women's Homeless Network has gone through some difficult times trying to establish itself as a relevant and viable resource for homeless women. Many challenge that the computer does not deal with the immediate needs of the women and is often intimidating let alone daunting to expect a woman, in a shelter, to concern herself with computer training. WHN has since honed its initial vision and is concentrating on low income women who are reasonably stabilized in housing. An integral part of the project is a Web site
http://www.speakeasy.org/hwn/
where you can see our mission to provide a database of resources for homeless and formerly homeless women and youth; provide access to information technology, including computer workshops, and finding equipment and training; and to provide free email accounts with the Seattle Community Network for women who are homeless. The site includes women speaking out, domestic violence resources, a link to "Real Change", Seattle's Homeless Newspaper, and a link to the American Women's Roundtable. The site is still growing, so come pay us a visit.

While we in WHN recognize the value of computers as a staple, others say it is a luxury and a waste of resources to invest in. We still need to educate the public in how useful these relatively new technologies can be for the homeless. Funding, space and available trainers are our other concerns. The group is bright and dedicated to the vision. And we can always utilize new ideas. If you want to communicate with us email us at bh566@scn.org

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Talking About Development (TD) is a World Wide Web interview project. Professionals, politicians, grassroots activists, and others, talk about what is development, their work, and the goals they seek. You will find it at:

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~fiatlux/td/index.html

Topics covered reach out in the vast realm of development which include, but are not restricted to, health, human rights, women's rights, reproductive rights, education, economic, and social rights, foreign relations, international and national politics, citizenship and democracy, the environment, etc. The interviews together present a good deal of variety of topics and exactly show how complex, inter-related, and diverse these issues are.

I believe we need to talk about development in a more democratic way, a way that brings together people from different regions and backgrounds to share their experiences. ...By giving visibility to the work that many of the interviewees do, we gain one more possibility for connecting with others doing similar work and who have similar ideas around the globe.

This project aims to work as a communication channel. As Celita Eccher, a popular educator from Uruguay, says, "We are people of action, so we write very little. So because we write little, no one knows what you are doing. So there we have another obstacle: to explain and inform about our work." Ofelia Calcetas-Santos, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Prevention of Child Prostitution, explains,

"I see my post as a focal point. If there is anybody who would like to share anything with us, be it a complaint, be it about oppression of certain children whose situation we can do something about, if there are initiatives that are being done and which the public feels would be helpful for other nations to know than I would appreciate them letting us know about it."

Many of the interviewees address things we need to discuss, and get a good grasp on, to make intelligent decisions. They help us to understand what is happening on a global scale. In her bold style of communicating, Vandana Shiva, an Indian activist, states,

"Now we've had a series of conferences, we've had Beijing, we've had Cairo, but, frankly, in my view, the money that's being moved for women's discussion has been to get women's attention exclusively focused on reproduction again and leave the debates on economy to the men. So the issue is not just how we get the men more involved in this discussion, but how we get the women more involved in discussions of the global economy, because they are looking too much at their uterus and their vaginas right now, frankly, and they need to look a little more at Nike also."

In talking to people from both North and South, I frequently find that there exists a gap, an abyss sometimes, between them in terms of the communication process, and the information exchanged. This concerns me. We are told we increasingly live in a global village, but we still know and understand so little of other women, peoples, regions, countries, grassroots groups, governments, etc.

There exists many undemocratic imbalances of who gets to talk, who gets heard, who controls information. Whatever group is in control beams down their views, their values, their construction of reality and justification for it to the rest without allowing other views and experiences to be heard. To say that one has freedom of speech if you have no access to mass media, if you can't influence people, if you can't communicate and share information, is to mock the true meaning of freedom of speech. The Internet, even though built on a system of privileges, allows for a variety of communication alternatives that were previously impossible for many people. TD is a project that tries to explore the World Wide Web as a publishing tool.

The Web has definitely revolutionized the way information is distributed through the Internet. The Web makes it possible for one to be one's own publisher and distributor, and this is an exciting opportunity. As the amount of information put on the Web increases in an exponential scale, the same constraints to select and access information that make other media undemocratic will soon apply to the Web as well. That is, those with most money and resources will have more selective information, more visibility, and more control of access and selection mechanisms. Censorship will be carried out in a variety of new and old technological forms. However, it is still possible to experiment and use the Web as a publishing tool. TD is an experiment in this regard, on how to use a new medium to organize and distribute information.

TD is not only about simply transcribing interviews. TD aims to make use of the Web's linking and ease of organizing data features that allow for so many complex linkage structures. For example, you can explore the interviews as a whole, cross-reference a series of questions, or search through them by topics. This helps to compare perspectives, and gain an understanding of issues across regions and through different experiences.

Since TD focuses more on the Americas, my aim is to have it translated into Spanish and English. In an international context such as the Internet, one needs to pay special attention to how language can also function as a tool of discrimination and inequality. To dictate that English will be "the" language on the Internet functions to exclude and discriminate against many women who don't speak English, which usually translates into one more facet of oppression for them. It serves to destroy the possibility of dialogue. Unfortunately I have been working on a volunteer basis and do not have the resources to pay for translations. Therefore, I also would like to make an appeal to those interested bilingual readers to help translate the material (specially in regard to writing the Spanish translations).

I hope readers will find the interviews as inspiring and interesting as I do. To contact me, please send an email to:fiatlux@umich.edu

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The PAR-L (Policy, Action, and Research List) mailing list was launched on March 8, 1995, by the Research Department of the Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women (CACSW). When the CACSW was terminated as a result of budget cuts in the following months, the list was transferred to the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton. PAR-L is now co-moderated by Wendy Robbins, former Director of Research at the CACSW and now professor of English and co-ordinator of Women’s Studies at the University of New Brunswick, and Michèle Ollivier, professor of Sociology at the University of Ottawa.

PAR-L was launched shortly after the introduction of new communications technology at the CACSW. Exploring the Net, we felt like pioneers and were amazed by the potential of this new technology for communications and research on feminist policy issues: gopher sites with research documents on all kinds of issues, discussion lists for exchanging information and creating networks, e-mail for communicating with people all over the country, ftp for transferring documents, telnet for accessing remote computers the potential for research and communications appeared staggering. On the downside, this new technology increased internal tensions between departments at the CACSW and became a stake in familiar turf wars. Few people knew what the technology was all about, everyone wanted to be hooked up, and access to electronic mail became perceived by many as a measure of one’s status within the organization.

When it was created, PAR-L had two main objectives: to increase contacts between the Council, feminist researchers and women’s groups across the country, and to share the Council’s expertise and publications more widely. In addition, there had also been persistent rumours that funding to women’s organizations, including the CACSW, would be slashed in the 1995 federal budget, and we hoped that an electronic network would prove useful for fighting cuts to women’s organizations in general and to the CACSW in particular. PAR-L continues to be a tool for exchanging information about policy, action, and research on issues of concern to women in Canada. Its membership has grown steadily since its foundation in 1995, and it now has over 400 subscribers across Canada and in 12 countries.

Because it originated in a government organization, PAR-L was at first designed as a bilingual list where messages from the moderators would be posted in both official languages and subscribers could send messages in the language of their choice. The very low number of subscribers from Québec and the quasi-absence of messages in French, however, suggest that bilingual lists may not be viable in the Canadian context. English remains the lingua franca of communications in electronic media, and this raises issues of access and cultural homogenization.

Discussions on PAR-L so far have been well-focused and they have covered a wide range of issues. However, discussions have not reached the depth that we expected and a lot remains to be done for the network to achieve its full potential. Since both moderators have full-time jobs and moderate the list largely after hours on a volunteer basis, time spent on improving PAR-L has been limited. If additional funding can be secured, we have numerous plans for the future. First, efforts would be made to expand PAR-L’s membership among academic and community-based policy researchers, community activists, and policy analysts. Second, we would aim to broaden members’ involvement in the orientation and activities of the network. Third, we have plans for online distribution of information about emerging policy issues, government initiatives, and policy research. Finally, a major objective is to expand PAR-L’s WWW site at:

http://www.unb.ca/web/PAR-L/index.html

to facilitate access to research reports and documents. These activities would transform PAR-L into a virtual research centre, where information on policy issues of concern to women could be stored and exchanged. Whether this goal will ever be realized is highly uncertain, but we hope that PAR-L will remain a forum where we can discuss and act together towards greater equality for women.

To subscribe to PAR-L send an e-mail message to:
listserv@unb.ca
and in the body of the message type:
subscribe PAR-L your name

or contact the moderators at:
mode@unb.ca

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In September, 1996, Battered Women's Support Services in British Columbia, Canada launched our new website at
http://www.bwss.org
We were thrilled at this accomplishment because it had seemed very out of reach for us. Our organization is funded to provide counselling, advocacy, support groups and public education, and like most women's organizations, we are stretched thin to provide even these basics.

My job consists mostly of counselling and advocacy, but I have been given a small amount of time to try to maintain a resource library for counsellor/advocates. We were fortunate to be given a contract with the B.C. government to assist with an initiative to provide materials about Stopping the Violence Against Women in Relationships in public libraries. To do this, we were given the use of a computer and modem, and had the great good fortune to have a computer expert volunteer his services in setting up and training me in this new technology. I had thought about designing a website, but could not find the time to learn how to do it.

Another volunteer to the rescue! Stacy Hryhoruk of Pacific Online Services phoned us one day and asked if we would like to have a free website. Stacy and her work partner Mark Strother were wonderful in showing us what could be done. We are still amazed at how much material can be listed: all of our nine programs are described, four of our publications are posted in full, along with our Mission Statement, The Way We Work philosophy, and the last three issues of our newsletter Making Waves. We see the website as an adjunct to our Education Program - one that educates the general public about what battering is, as well as encourages women to phone our service for information and support.

We have been able to do some publicizing of the site, but would appreciate anyone's assistance in spreading the word! We are unable to link our e-mail address to the site as yet, because we do not have the time to respond to a large number of e-mail enquiries. However, our phone numbers and mailing address are listed so that women may contact us.

We have enjoyed entering cyberspace via discussion lists such as PAR-L (Canadian list for women's research and activism) and FIVERS (Feminists against Intimate Violence through Empowerment, Energizing, Education, Exchange Resources, Resistance, Research and Support. It is exciting to be able to connect with so many services across Canada and in other countries!

For FIVERS, send email to
Majordomo@athens.net
In the body of the message state:
Subscribe fivers (put your email address here)

To subscribe to PAR-L send an e-mail message to:
listserv@unb.ca
and in the body of the message type:
subscribe PAR-L your name

Some of the websites we regularly visit are:

B.C. Ministry of Women's Equality:
http://www.weq.gov.bc.ca/

Ontario Women's Justice Network:
http://www.web.net/~owjn/

Barbara J. Hart collection:
http://www.umn.edu/mincava/hartindx.htm

contains articles about Domestic Violence; Battered Women and the Criminal Justice System.

Family Violence Prevention Fund
http://www.igc.apc.org/fund/

The Minnesota Higher Education Center Against Violence and Abuse Electronic Clearinghouse:

http://www.umn.edu/mincava/index.html

Kathy's Essential Information on Abuse, Assault, Rape & Domestic Violence:
http://www.mcs.net/~kathyw/abuse.html

Andrea Dworkin Home Page:
http://www.igc.apc.org/womensnet/dworkin/OnlineLibrary.html

contains excerpts of books, complete articles, speeches and radio interviews.

Catt's Claws : a wonderfully opinionated newsletter:
http://www.undelete.org/catts.html

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Part 1 Winter 1997, volume 2 no.3
Part 2 Winter 1997, volume 2 no.3
Part 3.2 Winter 1997, volume 2 no.3
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