=====================================================================
NEWSBYTES - August 7, 2009
=====================================================================
The Advisory Council on the Status of Women is the provincial government agency that promotes equality, fairness and dignity for women, by bringing forward concerns and advising the Minister Responsible for the Status of Women Act. Through research, policy, education, and partnerships, the council works to ensure women have an equal voice in society, fair pay and pensions, freedom from violence, and good health and well-being.
Newsbytes is a free bi-weekly e-mail newsletter with links to stories and contacts.
You can also read the newsletter and about coming events at the Advisory Council's website: <http://www.women.gov.ns.ca >.
Also, visit our online catalogue at <http://women.gov.ns.ca/library.asp> or come visit our library!
CONTENTS AT A GLANCE
/1/ Celebrating Communities: Excellence Awards
/2/ Know Someone Who Wants to Get Involved in Politics?
/3/ Proposals on Low-Income Women Building Sustainable Communities
/4/ Video on Canada's Growing Income Gap
/5/ Alerting UN Commission on the Status of Women
/6/ Advertising Campaign on National Disability Savings
/7/ Women’s Worlds 2011 Seeking Regional Network Leaders
/8/ Women Susceptible to Gambling
/9/ Women and the “Leaking Pipeline”
/10/ Girl Power Teaches Self-Esteem
/11/ Younger Girls, Bigger Breasts: Are Chemicals to Blame?
/12/ Sister Fair Art Show: "Women's Expression"
/13/ Did You Know?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/1/ CELEBRATING COMMUNITIES: EXCELLENCE AWARDS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Women Unlimited is a finalist for a Celebrating Communities Award for Excellence in Collaboration. The Advisory Council on the Status of Women nominated the program which enables young women and women re-entering the workforce to develop careers in trades and technology.
As a finalist, a delegate from Women Unlimited will attend the Celebrating Communities Conference on September 23, 24 and 25 in Truro. A video team will also visit finalists to produce a short profile of their community development work. The video will be available on the government website.
For more information visit this site: http://www.gov.ns.ca/econ/celebratingcommunities/2009/
On behalf of the many partners involved in this wonderful collaboration, we wish Women Unlimited all the best at the conference!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/2/ KNOW SOMEONE WHO WANTS TO GET INVOLVED IN POLITICS?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Women will hold its fifth Nova Scotia Campaign School for Women from October 16 to 18 at Mount Saint Vincent University. Learn insider knowledge, tools for success, and the do’s and don’t from politicians, party officials, policy makers, communication trainers, and scholars.
Check our website for more information and a registration form to attend this no-cost political weekend: http://women.gov.ns.ca/projectscampaignschool.asp . Join us on Facebook: search for our full name, Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Women, or Nova Scotia Campaign School for Women.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/3/ PROPOSALS ON LOW-INCOME WOMEN BUILDING SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Canadian Women’s Foundation (CWF) invites proposals, to plan, design and conduct the evaluation of its five-year initiative to support low-income women to build sustainable livelihoods. This work is to be done collaboratively with CWF and grantees from October 2009 to June 2014. The successful consultant(s) will have proven experience in project evaluation, women-centred economic development and project management.
CWF is Canada’s only national public foundation dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls. The foundation researches, shares and funds best approaches to ending violence against women, moving low-income women out of poverty, and building strong, resilient girls.
Please submit your proposal by email no later than 5 p.m. on Monday September 21, 2009. Interviews will take place in October with short-listed candidates.
Learn more at http://www.canadianwomen.org/ .
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/4/ VIDEO ON CANADA'S GROWING INCOME GAP
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
View the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) video about the growing income gap between the rich and the rest: Canada's Growing Gap Explained
http://www.policyalternatives.ca/reports/2009/07/reportsstudies2272/?pa=BB736455
Also check this new study: Canada’s “He-cession”: Men bearing the brunt of rising unemployment. Prime working age men are bearing the brunt of Canada's recession, says a new CCPA report. The report says 71 per cent of those who have lost jobs in the recession are men. Canada's unemployment gender gap is wider now than at any time since Statistics Canada began collecting monthly gender unemployment statistics in 1976.
Learn more: http://www.policyalternatives.ca/%7EASSETS/DOCUMENT/National_Office_Pubs/2009/HeCession.pdf
Source: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, August 4, 2009.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/5/ ALERTING UN COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Persons or groups may submit complaints to the UN Commission on the Status of Women regarding violations of women's human rights in any country. Deadline: Aug. 14, 2009. The commission considers such communications, to identify patterns of injustice and develop strategies for the promotion of gender equality. The author's identity is not revealed to governments concerned. csw-cp@un.org .
See: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/communications_procedure.html#where .
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/6/ ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN ON NATIONAL DISABILITY SAVINGS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Government of Canada has made available the Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP) to help people with disabilities under 60 years of age eligible for the Disability Tax Credit. A matching Canada Disability Savings Grant of up to $3,500 per year will be paid on eligible contributions made to an RDSP. The Government of Canada will also contribute a Canada Disability Savings Bond of up to $1,000 per year to the RDSP of eligible low- and modest-income Canadians, even if no contribution is made.
For more information: http://www.disabilitysavings.gc.ca .
Or call 1 800 O-Canada (1-800-622-6232) or TTY users may call 1-800-926-9105.
Source: Human Resources and Skills Development Canada: http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/home.shtml .
Check out the advertising campaign: http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/disability_issues/disability_savings/rdsp_ads/print_radio.shtml .
Source: Canadian Social Research, July 26, 2009.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/7/ WOMEN’S WORLDS 2011 SEEKING REGIONAL NETWORK LEADERS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The 11th Women’s Worlds Congress is coming to Ottawa- Gatineau in July 2011 and will be likely the largest international feminist gathering to take place in Canada.
Women’s World is hoping Canadian women will participate in large numbers. To spread the word, organizers are developing regional networks that will facilitate participation of women’s groups from across the country. As a first step, organizers want to identify 12 regional network leaders – a women’s group or an individual with the ability to network broadly with women’s groups in their region.
To learn more, visit http://www.womensworlds.ca , or contact info@womensworlds.ca .
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/8/ WOMEN SUSCEPTIBLE TO GAMBLING
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
According to the 2007 Adult Prevalence Study, the majority (87 per cent) of Nova Scotians gamble. Women over 55 years with incomes under $30,000 are more likely to participate in bingo and instant lottery. Women comprise 43 per cent of adults at risk for problems with gambling.
Other findings:
• Men and women participate equally in gambling activities such as charity raffles, slot machines, daily lottery and breakopens.
• Adults with incomes over $60,000 living with children are reported to have the highest rate of gambling participation in the province.
• People with higher levels of education were least likely to be involved in gambling and had the lowest level of risk for gambling problems.
• Persons aged 19 to 24 have the highest participation in high risk gambling activities such as daily lottery, VLTs, casino gambling and poker.
Source: NS Gaming Foundation, July 31, 2009.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/9/ WOMEN AND THE “LEAKING PIPELINE”
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
View a 27-minute film from PricewaterhouseCooper making the business case for investing in women, or read the transcript and companion guide “Closing the Gender Gap: Challenges, Opportunities and the Future Imperative.”
“If we were a manufacturing company and we had 50 per cent of our raw material coming in the front of the plant and only 17 per cent coming out as a finished product on the other end, we would say we have a problem. We have leakage in our plant. This is how it works. For the majority of companies around the world, 50 per cent of their graduate intake are women. By the time those women get to managerial level, we're down to 30 per cent. When it gets to senior executive, it's 15 per cent and main board positions, 10 per cent. Those women have either leaked out or they've simply not risen.”
Learn more: http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/women-at-pwc/pwc-closing-the-gender-gap-film.jhtml
Source: PricewaterhouseCooper, 2009.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/10/ GIRL POWER TEACHES SELF-ESTEEM
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Girl Power Program, sponsored by the Central Nova Women's Resource Centre, is running a self-esteem camp for girls aged 8 to 12 in Colchester County. The program, running for eight weeks this summer, features themes, such as, "All About Me", "Life Skills and Me", "Lifestyles and Me", and "Buddy Bake-off and Me". The girls are already half-way through the program and have made friends, grown stronger, learned virtues and built their self-esteems in a positive, healthy environment. The next sessions are "Caring Communities and Me", "Celebrating Seniors and Me", "Job Ready Judy and Me", and finally "Strong Girls, Strong World, Strong Me."
If you missed Girl Power this summer, leave your name and contact information for 2010 programs and the program organizer will send you information next spring. The phone number for the Central Nova Women's Resource Centre is (902) 895-4295; email is cnwrc@eastlink.ca . The centre is located at 535 Prince St., next to the Fair Trade Café in Truro. For more information contact Jennifer Clark, Girl Power Director, Central Nova Women's Resource Centre (902) 895-4295.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/11/ YOUNGER GIRLS, BIGGER BREASTS: ARE CHEMICALS TO BLAME?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We’ve heard the stories and seen the evidence: Girls are getting breasts a lot earlier than we remember from our own elementary school days. Nobody really knows why. But because girls are also getting chubbier (along with the rest of the population), that’s been the favored theory of causation.
Here’s the general evolutionary scenario: If you can eat more, you can reproduce earlier. In fact, thanks to better nutrition and less disease, the average age of sexual maturity in girls has dropped slowly but steadily, about three months per decade, since 1850.
See: http://www.doublex.com/section/health-science/younger-girls-bigger-breasts-are-chemicals-blame
Source: DoubleX, By Florence Williams, Created 07/28/2009.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/12/ SISTER FAIR ART SHOW: "WOMEN'S EXPRESSION"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Organizers are looking for women to submit one or two pieces to the art show with 20 per cent of sales going to Sister Fair. The fair is a fund-raiser for the Francis Mills Clements Bursary Fund to assist women pursuing post-secondary education.
Sister Fair is also looking for volunteers for an hour or more, to sell tickets, oversee the craft room, sell food, etc. If you volunteer for two or more hours, you get a free ticket to the evening concert. For more information visit our Events Calendar at http://women.gov.ns.ca/calendar.asp or contact the Sister Fair co-coordinator at kadijah@eastlink.ca or 902-245-2760.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/13/ DID YOU KNOW...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That people with disabilities generally have a higher risk of being in a low income bracket. Among women, the risk is four times greater when they have been disabled for six years.
Source: Statistics Canada: “Employment among the disabled.”
Source: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/090526/dq090526b-eng.htm .
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEXT ISSUE – September 11, 2009
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SPREAD THE WORD! FORWARD NEWSBYTES TO A FRIEND! To subscribe, send a blank e-mail message to join-nsacsw@lists.gov.ns.ca .
Or you can sign up at http://www.women.gov.ns.ca/medianewsletter.asp .