Status of Women committee  Not at all. It's more upgrading. A big part of it is upgrading for women. The administrative assistant is a college course. There are entry-level positions into these careers.

Status of Women committee  We had a lot of support from the Ontario Women's Directorate. That was the first ministry to step forward and give us funding to train women to be administrative assistants. It's a pilot project, and we hope to continue with that. It's starting to happen slowly. We need to see more women going to college and university so that they can get jobs to support their families.

Status of Women committee  Of course, here in Ottawa the labour market demand is for administrative personnel because we are the capital and a government-run city. Certainly, we need more women trained in college to be counsellors, to be the helpers, the healers, and to do research within the Native Women's Association to help the government make policy and move things forward.

Status of Women committee  Okay. Thank you.

Status of Women committee  We're continuing to offer the same programming; we just had to get more creative about doing it. We have a sacred child program where we encourage moms to instill confidence and culture in their children. When you raise up the children, and especially the women, when their hearts are not on the ground, the nation does better.

Status of Women committee  We have a project here called STORM, to assist sex trade workers. Basically we accept them wherever they are in their journey. It's non-judgmental, so we provide some basic programming and a place to come for coffee. We've partnered with Centre espoir Sophie here in Ottawa. We give them some healthy safe sex information and then kind of slip in that there's culture programming over here at Minwaashin Lodge.

Status of Women committee  I think sometimes they feel they don't have a choice. They have a lot of internalized fear and shame. For a lot of them, of course, the big thing is addiction--drug abuse and substance abuse. They're stuck in that cycle. Their pimps are controlling them. There's a whole lot of violence involved with sex trade workers.

Status of Women committee  The feather is to help me to speak. It was given to me from an elder so that I would have courage and confidence and a voice.

Status of Women committee  Did you want me to answer that question? From what I understand, there's no recourse for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation funding. I'm not aware that it was transferred over to Health Canada. If that's the case, we certainly will be applying for funding from them.

Status of Women committee  Well, since the Aboriginal Healing Foundation closed, there's no recourse for funding to keep these programs going, so a lot of us are left up in the air with that. We're hoping that something's going to come down the tubes, some kind of strategy or something to keep those programs going.

Status of Women committee  Yes, we're right here in Ottawa.

Status of Women committee  Well, a lot of people coming from the reserve experience culture shock. When they come to a big urban city, they're lost and oftentimes there's no safe place for women. So they come to our centre and then they're welcome. They see other women practising their culture and identity, so they feel safe and they start to open up.

Status of Women committee  They don't have stabilized housing when they come here. There are a lot of issues they have to deal with to get settled in. So yes, they are at a high risk of violence. Oftentimes, if they don't connect with the service, they'll connect with another element, and then they can go down that path.

Status of Women committee  I can say that the culture program is the most important, because when women learn about their identity and their purpose, and they do their healing, they can start giving back to their communities. The basic foundation of our healing is our culture, because everything we need is in our culture.

Status of Women committee  Yes. Often women come to our centre because they've been shamed into not identifying as aboriginal because of the intergenerational impact of the residential schools. They come in not knowing anything. Their grandmothers never said anything to them about being aboriginal. They find support from other sisters at the centre, and then they start on their journey of identity, and they really evolve.