Yes, I have worked with women who are homeless or at the edge.  
   
  At this moment, I'm in Ottawa, Canada in a library in a very fancy neighborhood waiting for my daughter who is in a Marchbreak gymnastics class.  I left my library card in Potsdam, NY where I normally live and work. This library is so fancy that they don't even carry any newspapers...
   
  In order to use the library internet I had to produce my library card or an id so she could look up my library card...Luckily I had my passport...
   
  In the days when I was not gainfully employed, I used to visit Centretown Community Health Centre in downtown Ottawa.  They had a community computer area where I was able to check emails and feel at home.  Yes, it is oppressive to have to produce a library card in order to use the internet.
   
  Best,
   
  Bertie Mo

Daphne Greenberg <ALCDGG at langate.gsu.edu> wrote:
  Do any of you knowingly work (past or present) with women who are homeless? Or have any of you been homeless? 

When I think of neglected groups in adult literacy, homeless women often comes to mind. According to a professor at my university, "homelessness should be considered a form of psychological trauma that... may produce learned helplessness-the perceptions that control over one's situation is external and that one's own actions will have no influence." She continues to say that "homelessness represents instability and vulnerability, particularly when you are a woman. There aren't really shelters for women, so where do you go? You're in a vulnerable situation to get your basic needs met. You may be vulnerable to additional victimization-sexual victimization, coercion and things like that" (Spring 2006, Georgia State Magazine, pg. 15).

I wonder if any of you who have experience with homelessness or working with women who are homeless and want to write to us about this in relation to literacy work. 

Coincidentally, on the Poverty Listserv, I came across this posting which also relates to homelessness and literacy:

Homeless advocates are concerned that a new policy requiring a library card to surf the web will prevent many homeless from using the internet in the one place it is available to them. To obtain a library card, applicants must 
provide an address, which effectively bars the homeless who live outside of shelters.

Gale Snible, a publicist for the New York Public Library (NYPL), said a library card became mandatory for logging onto the internet at most branches as part of a technology upgrade last year that permits users to join a virtual 
waiting list, and limits the time a user can surf the web ... Officials at the separately operated Brooklyn and Queens public libraries say they plan to shift to a similar system ... [cont'd] <<

http://www.citylimits.org/content/articles/weeklyView.cfm?articlenumber=1868 

Any thoughts/reactions?????

Daphne


Daphne Greenberg
Assistant Professor
Educational Psych. & Special Ed.
Georgia State University
P.O. Box 3979
Atlanta, Georgia 30302-3979
phone: 404-651-0127
fax:404-651-4901
dgreenberg at gsu.edu

Daphne Greenberg
Associate Director
Center for the Study of Adult Literacy
Georgia State University
P.O. Box 3977
Atlanta, Georgia 30302-3977
phone: 404-651-0127
fax:404-651-4901
dgreenberg at gsu.edu

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