On the Screen: A Sourcebook and Curriculum Guide Bringing Women's Barriers to Literacy, Learning and Employment to Light.

A 1999-2000 National Institute For Literacy Fellowship Project

Janet Isserlis janet_isserlis@brown.edu PO Box 1974/Brown University, Providence, RI 02912 phone: (401) 863-2839 fax: (401) 863-3094 http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Swearer_Center/Literacy_Resources/screen.html

quarterly report: October - December, 1999

Prior to official start up, I spent considerable time on the telephone and via email with Anson Green sorting out what we felt to be the parameters of our work. This is reflected in the workplan submitted to NIFL prior to 10/1, and subsequently updated at the first Fellows meeting.

During the summer, I began reading Trauma and Recovery, by Judith Herman, a seminal work in the area of both domestic and political trauma - areas critical in informing the work and providing a deeper understanding of the ways in which trauma impacts upon learning and other areas of general mental health.

I also met with representatives of the Women's Center of Rhode Island (in Providence) and the Women's Resource Center of South County, to begin planning activities for the fellowship year, and notified my contact at the Department of Health that the fellowship had been granted.

On September 10th I sent out a call for participation in the project to RI practitioners, (online, at http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Swearer_Center/Literacy_Resources/bulletin78.html) through which the ten participants now working with me on the fellowship work were identified. An 11th practitioner, although keen to pursue the topic, left shortly after the projectıs beginning, stating that she was overwhelmed with her own 'regular' work and felt unable to take on this project as well.

During this quarter, the following dissemination activities have occurred:

web dissemination: - development of shadow site, the address of which is known only to participants in the fellowship group, containing meeting notes, archives of email listserv, participantıs statements (as part of application process to participate in the project) and contact information - development of public pages, explaining the work and providing resources

http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Swearer_Center/Literacy_Resources/proposal.html - abridged version of fellowship proposal

http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Swearer_Center/Literacy_Resources/screen.html - print, video and online resources

outreach: In addition to web outreach, copies of the proposal were sent to a number of people active in the state's domestic violence community. Subsequent phone calls and meetings have been held in order to keep these people informed of the project's development. Email was used, as were phone calls and meetings to connect to Margie Parsons and Richard Hoffman (see below), as well as in response to inquiries from others who had learned of the fellowship and sought information, including a local VISTA worker, a writing facilitator with an interest in trauma and others locally (in person) and around the continent (email, phone).

Full day workshops for myself and project participants:

October 15 - RI Coalition against Domestic Violence annual conference

November 6 - Womenıs Center of RI workshop, designed specifically for and limited to project participants

activities: established listserv for project participants; again open only to participants and archived at a shadow site

Meetings with the full group - October 1, 29, December 3

These meetings have provided opportunities for participants to learn more about one anotherıs working contexts, to develop inquiry plans and to provide feedback to one another. Margie Parsons, a counselor who specializes in issues of trauma has facilitated one of these meetings and will, beginning in January, be available to meet with the group monthly. These meetings with Margie are optional (as participants were initially asked to commit only one meeting per month to the project); however most participants are interested in meeting both with Margie and with the group to discuss ongoing work at their sites.

Meeting with Fellows and NIFL staff - October 25, 26

Adult Correctional Institution, Cranston, RI : orientation, full day, November 15 - in preparation for volunteer tutoring work with inmates in the women's facility. I met early in the fall with the warden and the adult education provider at the ACI, and had invited the teacher to participate in the fellowship. She declined to become a participant, but was open to working with me as a volunteer tutor. I wish to pursue this work because the number of women in corrections for whom violence is an issue is significant. I anticipate learning from the inmates about violence and its effect on their learning - within and beyond incarceration.

plans for next quarter:

-- begin volunteer tutoring work at women's facility

-- meeting scheduled with Women's Center of Providence and executive director of another area shelter in order to determine best ways of disseminating work beyond those shelters/dv providers with whom I'm in direct contact

-- reading/discussion with Richard Hoffman, author of Half the House, a memoir in which the author describes his own experience with and recovery from childhood sexual abuse

conferences:

co-facilitation of a session on learning and trauma at the Canadian Congress for Learning Opportunities for Women, Toronto, March 1-5.

co-facilitation, with Anson Green, of a workshop on our project/dv and learning at COABE, Chicago. March 6.

-- presentation of a paper, providing an overview and theoretical background, and potential practical applications of the work to date at TESOL 2000, Vancouver, March 14.


-- ongoing meetings with participants and counselor proactive attempt to invite learners into the discussion (this has been an ongoing discussion with practitioners - ways in which to involve learners carefully and intentionally.) -- continue writing


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