Older Women’s Dialogue Project – Tool Development

Empowering older women to take action on the law and policy issues they care about

Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre

Older women from this group identified discrimination and security in housing as the largest barrier to their well-being.  The women developed three short video clips to be used to increase awareness of the barriers older Indigenous women and women of the Downtown Eastside experience trying to find safe, discrimination free housing.  The women used cameras to take the pictures shown in the videos, and apart from a few supplementary stock photography images, the pictures represent the day-to-day lived experiences for many older women in the community.  The videos accompany a workshop on how housing providers can better support older Indigenous women tenants and residents, to be released in July 2016.

Video 1 – Homelessness is Ageless

Video 2- Dignity, Culture & Housing

Video 3 – My Home is Not Safe

South Granville Seniors Centre

A group of Spanish-speaking women from the Lower Mainland of BC women met regularly over six months to identify a key legal problems faced by older Latin American women and to advocate for law and policy changes that will eliminate that barrier. The group chose to work towards improving access to affordable prescription drug coverage. The women developed a video to share their story and highlight difficulties in accessing prescription medications.

Click here to view the video: The Need for Universal Pharmacare

Richmond Women’s Resource Centre

The Richmond Grandmother’s Group has just finished developing their tools as part of the Older Women’s Dialogue Project.  The women in the group, known as the Richmond Grandmothers, are advocating for publicly funded oral hygiene and dental care for low income seniors in BC.  Access and share the tools:

This project was supported by the Canadian Centre for Elder Law and West Coast Legal Education & Action Fund as a part of the Older Women’s Dialogue Project. The project focuses on identifying the legal and social policy issues impacting older women as well as potential remedies for these issues.

Stay tuned for additional tools.