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Overview

A Place in the Sun: where audacious women with disAbilities meet to share our stories. What it was like, what happened, and what it's like today: that's what we aim to share. Being a woman and having a disAbility (or two, or three) makes us neither a saint nor a martyr, but it does necessarily challenge us to be adaptable.

Society was not initially constructed to include those of us who are not flawlessly able. It has been our duty to ourselves to find the back doors and shaded windows of opportunity, scaling walls of resistance, all just to reach or build a barrier-free place where the sun shines equally on us all.

We are here to tell our stories of the grand expedition from exclusion to inclusion: to shine a light on those doors, open those windows wider, and disassemble those walls.

The Sharing Our Stories Project is an initiative of the women connected to the DisAbled Women's Network (DAWN).

Since the most primitive campfires and throughout history, stories have helped teach, influence, and bind people together. Stories have fostered the understanding -- of self, of others, and of life -- which is vital to progress.

Such understanding is sorely needed today, as we, Women with disAbilities, struggle to live and work and progress toward common goals.

Clear, honest story sharing is a powerful human strategy that the Sharing Our Stories project will use to:

• stimulate critical and creative thinking from a gender-based, disAbility lens
• increase awareness and understanding of Women with disAbilities
• provide effective role models for young Girls with disAbiltiies
• influence attitudes, behaviour, cultural change
• create a climate for unity within diversity
• integrate and orient Women with disAbilities who are new to our Network
• reinforce cultural values and ethics

Story sharing can enhance awareness, human relations, performance, ethics, team spirit, organizational understanding and loyality. Exploring and sharing true stories is valuable for self help or self improvement, or organizational, team or process improvement. It can be a powerful basis for spiritual, personal, professional, or organizational development.

More specifically, story sharing may help:

• improve writing, speaking, and listening skills
• illustrate points, provide concrete examples
• stir feelings and "right brain" responses
• humanize strangers and those different from us
• level the playing field for outsiders
• foster empathy, human connections, relationships
• open minds and hearts
• deepen appreciation of differences and of commonality

The DisAbled Women's Network (DAWN) places great emphasis on sharing our stories; we learn and grow from each others' experiences.

To participate in the Sharing Our Stories project, please email your interest to: dawnontario@sympatico.ca