Empowering young women living with intellectual disabilities

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--- June 11, 2010, Barb Hiland, Director of Operations, Community Living Peterborough

Community Living Peterborough is one of the many organizations to have been awarded funding from Staus of Women Canada, Women's Community Fund for $62,596 over a two year project period.

Status of Women Canada (SWC) is a federal government organization that promotes the full participation of women in the economic, social and democratic life of Canada. SWC works to advance equality for women and to remove the barriers to women's participation in society, putting particular emphasis on increasing women's economic security and eliminating violence against women.

With training and education, we expect to empower ten young women to be the Ambassadors and Leaders for messaging peers, our Board and staff, the community (including schools) and the provincial government of the importance of inclusion and self-determination for women who are living with an intellectual disability.

With the facilitation and coaching of a part time facilitator, they will design their own presentations, acquire the skills necessary for public presentations and lead this agency and community towards the fruition of fuller lives for women as rightful citizens in community. They will speak to, and promote, the recent ratification of the 2007 United Nations Convention for the Rights of People with Learning Disabilities.

As a result of this initiative, our planned outcomes include:

10 young women living with an intellectual disability will have developed leadership skills and be able to mentor 20 other women with similar abilities;
These 10 young women will have contributed to the development of a model of inclusion which will have been presented in the community, schools and workplaces;
An inclusive model for integrating young women with an intellectual disability will have been used to promote awareness to other stakeholders, schools and community resource services in the region.

At this time, ten young ladies have been invited to be our SWC Ambassadors and, over the summer, will receive training to acquire the necessary skills to begin their Ambassador role and increase the awareness of women’s issues facing women who are living with an intellectual disability.

Look forward to more information over the coming months!!