I should have posted something Thursday to tell everyone what a wonderful time we had on Wednesday at the Women's Gathering. Over 80 women gathered to discuss poverty and all the related issues.
I had the privilege of being the keynote speaker and told a bit of my story and my personal experience with poverty. Thank you to everyone who approached me one on one later in the day to express their thoughts on what I'd said.
Thank you to the Ball Seed Company for donating 90 bags so that each attendee went home with a grab bag of treats. Thank you also to Huron, Bruce and Grey counties, and the City of Stratford for supplying us with tourism information on their regions. Women who suffer from poverty still like to play and with all the natural wonders there are a lot of great 'free' places to play.
Crimestoppers gave us pens and bookmarks and the United Way chipped in for some candy (sssh don't tell the Health Unit).
We learned that there is no image that is associated with women in poverty. There are lots of images for urban poverty: homelessness, men's poverty: soup kitchen line ups, but there is no image of women's poverty.
So we've got a lot of work to do around this issue, but the good news is that there are no 80 women out there who feel better about their situation and themselves.
A great day, a great start.
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