The Working Groups The Coalition feels strongly that including survivors of woman abuse and community organizations in the development of policies and protocols for responding to women abuse is important. Each of the working groups that were formed during Phase 2 of the project had representation from at least two survivors of woman abuse as well as representation from community groups such as Transition House Association, Community Legal Information Association, the PEI Association of Newcomers to Canada, the Premier's Action Committee on Family Violence Prevention and the Aboriginal Women's Association. While each working group used a different process, both used a woman-centered analysis in the development of their protocols. See the following pages for detailed agendas and processes used by each group. Each working group evaluated their protocol development process. Some of the things that the groups found helpful were: having "experts" (ie. survivors/ community groups) present having front line staff participating in policy development facilitation made it more interesting having a comfortable space large enough to break off for smaller group discussions having good food starting broad with values meeting everybody being kept on track by facilitator having a co-ordinator draft protocol and make changes based on group's input having full day meetings having regional representation having a strong commitment to participate by the working group members Survivors' Evaluation Four women who had experienced the cycle of abuse were involved in the working groups. In order to ensure that their future participation is positive and effective, we asked them to talk about their involvement and evaluate the protocol development process. Each woman had a different experience and its important to keep all of these comments in mind when including women with personal experience in woman abuse protocol development. The women's names have been changed to ensure confidentiality. This is what they said: Kim "There were times when I was extraordinarily upset by the attitudes I was hearing. But no matter what group we're in we're going to run into someone who has the same characteristics as our abuser and that's going to trigger something in me. There was one session where I left and cried for about three hours." "I did feel that in order to be heard I had to get angry and I think it's going to take some really aggressive survivors to make changes." "I think people develop ideas, frameworks etc. to justify who they are - in a group there are all kinds of people dealing with their own issues about abuse and some are so deep into denial that they don't want to hear what we have to say. With others sometimes I feel as though they're right there with you and god, they love what you're saying - as long as they don't have to make any changes or do anything. The keenness and excitement in the room doesn't often translate into action so we'll have to see what happens next. " "But it was up and down - there were also times when it was good. I felt very positive during those moments when I saw the lights go on. And as frustrating and horrible as it may feel at times, its leaps and bounds ahead of other issues or organizations that I'm involved in. At least we're [at the table]." Christine "I found it really good knowing that my bad experience can help someone else to [receive a more positive response]." "The first meeting I had with my working group, I confronted them because I wasn't happy with the treatment I received [when I was in the abusive relationship] and they took it - they said `tell us what to change'." "I felt respected when I was talking and [when I said that something] didn't work for me - they changed it. It seemed like everyone was supporting me." Bethany "My experience on the working group was not totally positive. I expected a little more respect for my experience, not outright arguing with me about my suggestions from some in the group. [The experience] gave me the feeling that I was on the outside, with some of them possibly thinking "Who are you to tell us what to do?" and "If you don't like it don't come back." There were times when I didn't feel like part of the group - I was an invited person. I didn't know if I should just butt in or if I was butting in. I need to be validated by the group and my uncertainty of my role at times prevented me from expressing my experience or suggestions , so I was sometimes not sure if my input was wanted or not . I sometimes left meetings feeling like "why did I come here - nobody asked for my opinion or my feed back, did my presence here really make a difference?" "If they want us as resource people we shouldn't have to argue with some of the people in the group - they should listen to us and respect our experience." "[There was] one person in the group who seemed to take over the conversation a lot of the time and steered the conversation so no-one else could say what they wanted to say. [One time that I did express an opinion and offer a suggestion, that person] dismissed my idea [in a way that] I felt was abusive. But then I would see other sides of [that person] and could tell that she wanted to do her best. Deep down I think that people are really sincere and want to do a good thing but you have to work with what you've got and where you're at." "[The experience brought] up emotions - its only six years since my dealings with the system, most of which was negative, and I'm sensitive to employees' backs going up because that was my experience with [them] when I was going through the system." "Some of us are not on the same level of discussion - my experience was very traumatic and some of the members or the group are very matter of fact [during the discussions about protocol development]. I need to know if its worth my time to participate in this kind of work." "There were also some very supportive people in the group who came up to me to check in after meetings. On the whole I saw a lot of people who wanted to make positive changes." "To think that people actually care enough about [woman abuse issues] to do all this work - at one time I thought that nobody really cared - I'm really impressed that there is all this work going on." Sarah "I find this so exciting [to be involved in this work]. My group responded positively. I found that anytime I spoke they really wanted to hear me and that gets me going - that gets me excited. [Its important for] workers to know what it feels like to be abused - to really know." All four women had recommendations for how we could improve things in the future: invite involvement of more than one survivor per group so that they each have someone to go to for support/debriefing in the group at the first meeting explain the role of the survivors on the committee and set some ground rules by asking the survivors what they expect and how they would feel respected by others in the group all of the survivors involved could meet regularly to debrief, share experiences so that every woman's experience could be shared with each group use techniques during meeting and after meeting to ensure that survivors can add to things said facilitators need to continually invite survivors to give input someone in the group could take on the role of debriefing/evaluating with survivors and reporting back to the group on behalf of the survivors (is they aren't comfortable doing it themselves)