Vancouver Women’s Health Collective

This project proposal, presented to the BC Centre of Excellence for Women's Health by the Women's Health Information Network Committee of the Vancouver Women's Health Collective (VWHC), proposes a project called the Health Education Resource (HER). HER would be an online database resource for the Community Health Advocates, providing health information and advocacy guidelines. The proposal includes a breakdown of questions that address the need for a Health Education Resource database, a breakdown of the topics and subtopics that would appear on the database (such as women's rights in the health care system, doctors and therapists, and community resources), and a proposed budget.

A research report presented for the Women's Health Policy Development Forum, based on qualitative research carried out with 'houseless' women in Vancouver, by Katherine Gould. The report describes the experiences of the houseless women she spoke with, and recommendations they have for increasing their access to health care, including increased support, education, and access to services as well as food, water, shower services, etc. Further recommendations include health advocates for houseless women, available, comprehensive and user-friendly resource material for houseless women, expanded medical services, a new walk-in clinic in the downtown eastside, and increased follow-up services to women.

A series of questions (presumably proposed by the funder, the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, through the Sharon Martin Community Health Initiative Fund), addressing the impact of proposed financial cut-backs and the foreseen impacts on the project. The Community Health Advocate Project, according to the Vancouver Women's Health Collective (VWHC), would not likely survive if funding were eliminated. The questions also address contributions made to the way in which health care is provided, and perceived ways that the project "keep[s] people out of the formal health care system and save[s] health care dollars."

A progress report on the Community Health Advocate Project, for the Sharon Martin Community Health Initiative Fund (Vancouver Coastal Health Authority). The report, prepared by the Vancouver Women's Health Collective (VWHC), outlines the goals of the Community Health Advocate Project, the accomplishments to date (such as the teaching of self-advocacy skills to women through the Patients' Rights workshops), the development of a resource kit for women who attend the Patients' Rights workshops, the development of partnerships with community hosts for the Patients' Rights workshops, and examples of women who have benefited from the workshops. The document also comments on the changes to the ongoing evaluation process of the project, and the future of the project. The appendices list all of the community organizations that hosted workshops between an 8-month period in 2001, as well as responses from community host facilitator responses (quoted from evaluation forms), updated goals and objectives of the project.