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W o m a n s p a c e

WomanspaceFOCUS

Newsletter November 2009

In this issue:

AGM 2009

An Interview with Martha of Marthas Monthly

Current Project - FinancialServices for Low IncomeWomen

Take Back the Night 2009

New Student at the of ce

Alberta Women MakingWaves

Public Interest Alberta

Get your feminist on!

FOCUS

Join us for the Annual GeneralMeeting on Thursday, November19, 6:30 pm, at the Galt Museum.Inspiring guest speakers includeparticipants of the current project- Your Money and Your Life, FinancialServices. As is becoming a tradition,the Desert Wind Belly Dancers willbe entertaining us, and the dessetauction is always a hit. See you there!

Exciting New Partnership

Womanspace is honoured to be embarking on a new partnership withOpokaasin Early Intervention Society for our nancial literacy programs.Opokaasin clients participated in our last set of nancial information sessions. In addition, Opokaasin provided valuable nancial support to theprogram, purchasing the accordion folder ling kits for the participants.Members of the Opokaasin youth mentorship program provided thechild care for the sessions - a wonderful mutually bene cial arrangementwhere young First Nations people got valuable work experience and wecould provide on-site child care to our participants! We look forward to furthering our partnership with Opokaasin.

Websites we love(and you will too!)

www.pialberta.orgwww.desertwindbellydancers.com

www.rabble.cawww.etsy.com

www.womanspace.cawww.marthasmonthly.cawww.gailvazoxlade.com

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Goodness me!I just love getting my Martha.

An Interview with Martha ,of Marthas Monthly

by Lisa Lambert

Martha is a private woman; some saw she is also an enigma. SoWomanspace asked her to sit down for a one on one about her thoughts,her politics, and just how often Henry does the dishes.

Womanspace (W): Martha, one of the rst things I want to ask iswhat your last name is, so many people want to know. I hear from peoplethat want to talk to you, call you up, have a chat.

Martha (M) : Everywoman, Martha Everywoman is my name. But mynumber is unlisted and I am terrible on the phone. I prefer to hear frompeople via email and facebook, my new favorite place to be.

W: Martha, since 2004 you have been writing about politics in Alberta.Are you running out of issues and things to write about?

M: Oh, I wish that I could run out of issues. In the beginning I thought I might. I mean, honestly, I thought thatif the government just heard the facts from some of us they would make different choices and we could solve alot of problems. But the truth is this government makes the choices they make based on the same informationwe havethey just value things differently. That makes my job a little different. I am not educating the govern-ment as much as I am educating the voters to know what values the parties hold and make sure they vote forthe party that re ects their values. And we need to hold the government accountable to the people, some -thing Alberta is not all that used to.

W: It sounds like you are saying that writing the government makes no difference.

M: Oh, goodness me, not at all. All those thousands of letters that Marthas across this province have generated

to the government and the opposition have had great effects. For one thing, the government knows it will getletters from us about issues of importance to women and I think that makes them a little leery of making deci-sions that will be easily attacked by us and other groups. Secondly, our letters have a big impact on the opposi-tion parties because they tell me so. They use our Marthas Monthly to engage in dialogue with women acrossAlberta about issues of importance to them like child care and health care and poverty. And as I said before,the more women we empower to make political decisions based on their values then the more likely we willbe to have womens voices and womens issues become important in politics. In the end, I just want to see theLegislature bursting with a diversity of women and passionate politicians.

W: So electing women is an important part of your work?

M: Electing women, getting women to help candidates, getting women to join the parties, having women sit onBoards and Commissions, encouraging women to donate to parties and organizations, and encouraging youngwomen to see politics as something that is understandable, achievable, and valuable to them that is my to dolist. Women generally do all these things less often than men and we need to change that. The only way wewill get more women-friendly policies from our government is to make our government more women friendly.It is not just women that we need but we need many, many more women.

W: Martha, one of the things that women tell us is that politics is just not on their radar. They are busy withkids, work, home, and the dishes always need to be done. What advice would you give to women so they canget politics on their radar?

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M: You know, that is a great question. Iwant to assure every woman readingthis that politics is very much on theirradar because they are so affected,everyday, by political decisions thatthey need to be part of the mix. If a busy mom can volunteer for onehour to deliver voters to the ballotbox on Election Day then she is myhero. If a stressed out employee canattend a union meeting and see howshe can get help and help others inher worksite then she is a giant in myesteem. If a woman that is too tiredat the end of the day to do more thanplay Bejeweled online can take veminutes and forward on the MarthasMonthly to her friends then she ismy ally. And if a woman watching hersons Christmas concert can wonderaloud to the other parents why theyhave to fundraise for essentials inthe school then I want to give her amedal because all of those acts areprofoundly political and just plainfabulous. I hope women see that theirlives are political and their decisionsand actions are too. Do what you canin your community and we will build anetwork of women looking for some-thing more, something better. That is arevolution.

W: And the dishes, what are we to doabout them?

M: Oh, if Henry needs a dish he canwash them up himself. Ive got poli-ticking to do!

W: Thanks, Martha. You rock!

M: Thank you, all you Womanspacers, you rock waymore!

Financial Services for WomenCurrent Project

by Shannon Phillips

A Guide to Financial Independence

Youll get the picture.

Your Money

W o m a n s p a c e

and Your Life

Womanspace Financial Information Manual 2009

The Your Money and Your Life: A Guide to FinancialIndependence manual is now available for pur-chase. This practical, easy to read manual is fullof inspirational anecdotes from project participants,money-saving tips, budjeting guidelines, internet andlocal ressources, and written exercises. It will assistreaders in understanding debt, planning, and saving.80 pages , partial color, coil binding. Participantsof the project will receive manuals , and copies areavailable at the of ce for $20. Copies will also beavailable for sale at the Annual General Meeting.

An interview with Martha continued...

The nal set of nancial information sessions, funded by our Status of Women project, were held in October. This set of sessions was held in

partnership with Opokaasin Early Intervention Society, as Opokaasinclients participated in the sessions and Opokaasin employed participantsin their youth mentorship programs for child care. In addition, Opokaasinprovided some valuable nancial support, providing the ling kits we dis -tribute to our participants the accordion pocket le folders for thewomen to set up a home ling system. We were also grateful for supportfrom Edna Badeagle, who delivered information to the participants aboutRegistered Education Savings Plans.

For this set of sessions, we were honoured to have past participantscome to share their experiences with the women. Sharon, Barb, Theresa

were all outstanding contributions to the learning experience, as theybrought their own stories and shared how the Womanspace programimproved their lives.

Our nancial sessions have bene ted tremendously from the support of the nancial and other professionals who deliver the information to theclients. A special thanks should go to Inga Jesswein, who has been a fan-tastic nancial mentor for many of our participants in addition to beingan excellent resource for our staff. Inga also sits on the project steeringcommittee!

As this phase of Status of Women funding wrapped up at the end of October 2009, our nancial literacy services for low-income women aresomewhat reduced, but we should be able to continue to deliver mostclient services. We also have funding for another set of nancial literacysessions in January 2010. If you or anyone you know is interested in thesessions, please contact the of ce and sign up!

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TAKE BACK THE NIGHT 2009

Another successful eventby Heather Rowland

New Studentat the of ce

Special thanks to:Bonnie Greenshields of Round Street Cafe for donating all the

food for the financial project information sessions.

Our anonymous donor whodropped off a cheque after reading about our financial project in the newspaper.

Women Unite! On Sept. 11 over one hundred enthusiastic women andchildren united to celebrate the annual Take Back the Night Rally andMarch. The event was organized by Womanspace volunteers to draw at-tention to the continued occurrence of violence against women. One infour Canadian women experience violence. When women join togetherfor this event it reminds people of the challenges women face, but also of the resilience, compassion, power and strength women possess.

The night started with our Mistress of Ceremonies, Donna Jo Jeffrey,introducing a diverse and engaging line up of speakers. These includedDarcie James, Jacinda Weiss, Jazz Palmer, Ramona Big Head, and theMusical styling of Jean Greer McCarthy. All were well spoken and in-spirational in sharing their stories and strength. Kids and adults alikeenjoyed the craft table and sidewalk chalk to write their own messagesand signs bringing awareness to this issue.

Take Back the Night received excellent media coverage including an in-terview on Global and front-page coverage from the Lethbridge Herald.Overall the night went very smoothly, the community response wasexcellent and we look forward to next year!

Julia Rand is our invaluable socialwork practicum student thissemester. Julia and Womanspacewere clearly made for each other!She is here Monday through

Wednesday until December 8. Wehave kept her really busy doingresearch, helping with the nancialinformation sessions and assistingclients. She has also been assistingwith the preparations for the bigfundraiser, Making Waves, and im-mediately after, our Annual GeneralMeeting on November 19. Juliahas been a really good t here atWomanspace, and we sincerely

hope she keeps in touch with usafter the practicum.

Womanspace Gala Fundraiser with live entertainment by musician Mother special guests. We honored Tanya Pace Crosschild of LethbridgCalgary, and Maria Dunn of Edmonton (read more about these amazwebsite at womanspace.ca). Cocktails, appetizers, and three women wour province - we were asked repeatedly to make this a yearly eventwent to our current project, Financial Literacy Programs for Low-Inco

Contact us!

of ce@womanspace.ca403 329-8338 or403 320-8332Fax - 329-8886

www.womanspace.ca#504 - 740 4th AvenueSouth Lethbridge T1J 0N9

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The Desert Wind Belly Dancers have become a btradition with Womanspace, having performed foevents including Annual General Meetings and IWomens Day. Their passion for dance is readilyas they are crowd-pleasers for all audiences. Thethemselves as, just a group of women sharing thThanks for sharing that joy with us!

Public Interest Alberta

Womanspace continues as a board member for Public Interest Alberta, a province-wide advocacy group thatstands up for public services and the common good. We sit on the child care task force and are the onlywomens organization on the board. PIA conducts campaigns around issues of concern to Albertans, and hasmost recently been involved in standing up for long-term care and seniors issues. Support PIAs efforts by visit-ing www.pialberta.org and getting involved. A news release about the governments plans for long-term care

obtained in a leaked document by Public Interest Alberta is below.

September 22, 2009 Documents Reveal Cuts, Deregulation and Privatization of Long-Term CareAdvocacy group demands open public consultation on privatization plan for LTCPublic Interest Alberta released leaked documents today that reveal signi cant changes are being planned forAlbertas long-term care system.The report and the minutes from closed-door meetings of the Long-TermCare Accommodations Variable Fee Structure Advisory Team show that:* The government target is to reduce long-term care beds by 80% over the next 20 years.* Signi cant changes are already in process from Alberta Health for LTC policy including establishing a private long-termcontacts model (P3) for building new long-term care and amending the rst available bed policy.* There are 800 people currently in the health system awaiting placement in a LTC bed.

* Only 54% of LTC facilities are compliant with standards even after they are given 2 6 months to resolve the problems.* Industry spokespeople say they require an increase to $90 per day (up from an average of $50/day) to cover the capitalcosts of building new care facilities.* All pricing models for long-term care that are being proposed will deregulate the accommodation rates, which will transferthe costs onto the frailest of seniors and their families.These documents reveal that not only is our current long-term care system deeply awed, but that the pricingand privatization models that are being proposed will make it even worse for seniors who require the highestlevel of medically necessary care, says Bill Moore-Kilgannon, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta.This whole process has been taking place behind closed doors and Albertans need to understand that unlesswe speak out, our long-term care system will be rapidly privatized and high needs seniors will be faced withvery signi cant cost increases.

Even though the government of cials acknowledge inthe documents that Todays system is characterizedby constrained supply of long-term care beds andthat we currently have 800 people in hospitals medi-cally assessed to require a LTC bed, the report revealsthat The Continuing Care Strategy targets a signi cantreduction in long-term care beds.

PIA will be launching a public awareness campaign and iscalling on Albertans to contact the Premier, the Ministerof Health and Wellness and the Minister of Seniors andCommunity supports along with their MLAs to chal-lenge them not to cut, deregulate and privatize thesystem.

Links to get involved in this advocacy campaign,a synopsis of the main ndings and the summaryreport and minutes can be found on PublicInterest Albertas website at http://www.pialberta.org/program_areas/Seniors

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NEW ITEMS FOR SALEGet your feminist on! Bumper Sticker (we like to use them on binders and folders). $2

Purple stainless steel water bottle with Womanspace logo and uniquedesign. Quantities limited. $20