First is the development of all of the local, regional, little groups of women that have developed. In Alberta, just six months ago, a group of young women who attended Advancing Women went back to their locales, and they started gathering a group of women to be on social media, to be on Facebook, to use Twitter amongst each other, to meet at trade shows, and to hold special little events for each other just to talk about things like barriers, opportunities, and what's been happening. Today, six months later, there are over 2,000 young women between the ages of 21 and 35 who now belong to that network. It's the same in Saskatchewan and in Ontario. I think that the development of those types of networking groups at a local level has become very much spurred and motivated to discuss things like how to work better with our banks. How do we work better with farm implement groups and retailers? How do we deal better in our boards and associations?
On the other hand, a year ago I was approached by a woman by phone, and she said, “I'm recently a widow. I have three small children. I run a huge farming operation, cattle and crop. Can you introduce me to another woman who is in the same situation as me?” I knew of someone, and unbeknownst to both of them, I introduced them at the conference and sat them beside each other. Those two women were connected at the hip for two full days, and it was so inspiring and heart-wrenching, really, to see them share their stories about how, having lost their husbands, they still wanted to make that succession plan so their children could take over the farm.
Today there are over 25 women, crossing the border from Canada to the U.S., who have formed a network of widows. We just don't know what to call them because men are assuming that they're for sale to be wives, so we're not sure how to promote that.
Those are two examples of peers working with peers.