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pace 10/What She Wants/February, 1978

Women's Growth Cooperative

The Women's Growth Cooperative was formed by a group of women who came together in 1975 to share views on the relationship between consciousness and therapy. We brought with us a wide range of disciplines and mental health experiences and the common desire to help women help themselves.

In looking back over our history during the past two years, it has become apparent that we, like many other feminist organizations, have had two intertwined courses of development. Much of our energy has been devoted to building a working environment rich in personal support, caring, and respect. The intense focus on interpersonal relationships of the group members preceded our working on our task: the development of a feminist-oriented counseling service for women.

It has become fashionable in feminist and human. istic circles to label the aspect of organization building which is related to the structure of the group and the relationships among the members as the "process" to distinguish it from the "real" work, the "Task". In our case, this "real" work, was, ostensibly, creating a counseling service. In feminist organizations like the Growth Cooperative a tension exists between these two foci; we are uncertain how we can proceed with our task without attention to our process. Yet without putting energy on the task, group meetings can become variations of encounter groups or sensitivity training. This tension can become quite acute, as group members have different needs and tolerances for the twin aspects of feminist organization building. Most of us have enormous needs to create in our feminist com. munities environments which are self-validating and approving to rebuild fractured psyches and cushion the harshness of the worlds in which most of us move. Most of us, too, greatly need to see our feminist tasks as successful and valuable within and outside the women's community.

The tension between the process and the task is exacerbated by the severe time limitations we have for our women's movement work and by the fact that, given the amount of compromising most of us have to do everywhere else, we cannot bear to have to compromise in the arena we care most about. In reflecting back over the history of the Women's Growth Cooperative, it seems clear to me that the tension between process and task existed in part because of the way we defined the relative importance of the two. We verbally agreed that our work was to create a counseling service, yet we spent the major part of our energy on the process. Thus, in practice we actually gave greater weight to the development of a supportive network of relationships among the members. Given this, perhaps in the beginning this was indeed our task, the creation of a process of working together that satisfied our deep yearning for a nonoppressive and self-liberating work environment. For the Women's Growth Cooperative, at any rate, the attention paid to this aspect of creating an organization has provided an extra dividend: we each learned enormous amounts about non-hierarchical counseling and acing on the feminist theory of the healing quality of being valued as a person and as a worker. Iris Bishop

EEEEGGGGGGGGGGG Upcoming programs offered by the Women's Growth Cooperative:

WORKSHOPS:

1. Assertiveness Training. Learn positive ways to stand up for personal rights and express your needs and felings without violating the rights of others. Emphasis will be on the particular problems women

have with assertion,

We will assess our current behaviors and feelings in this area. Then the focus will be on changing behavior toward communica. tion which is neither hostile nor submissive. There will be opportunities for practicing new behaviors in situations like those we encounter at home, at work, at social gatherings. Saturday and Sunday, March 11 and 12, 1978, 10 a.m. to 5p.m.

2. Disunity Among Women. The women's liberation movement has been labeled a largely middleclass phenomenon. Working class women are not generally viewed as supportive or involved in it. 1. Are working class and middle class women really at odds with each other? 2. If so, what is keeping middle class and working class women from working together?

This workshop is designed to address these questions and to (a) provide a better understanding of the experience of growing up working class and middle class in this society; (b) identify misunderstandings and behaviors which separate and, thus, hurt women; (c) develop strategies to increase unity among women of differing classes. Each participant will be expected to be highly involved in this work. shop--sharing experiences, feelings, thinking. Saturday, March 18, 1978, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. 3327 Yorkshire Road, Cleveland Heights. GROUPS:

Consciousness Raising: An Introduction to Ideas of the Women's Movement. Drawing on our experiences as women, we will examine specific themes such as marriage, love, old age, money, sexuality. Each week will include a time for personal sharing and some structured experiences to help us learn about basic ideas of feminism. First session: Saturday, March 4, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., then meeting for 4 consecutive Tuesday evenings beginning March 7, 7:30 to 9:30.

INDIVIDUAL COUNSELING: Available on an ongoing basis. Call the Growth Cooperative for appointments.

FEES: Fees for individual counseling, groups, and workshops are based on a sliding scale depending on your income. A non-refundable minimum deposit of $5 is required one week in advance to secure your place in a group or workshop. Your fees will be discussed when your registration is confirmed.

LOCATION: Unless otherwise arranged, groups and workshops are held at our office, 2420 South Taylor, Cleveland Heights.

To register for a group or workshop, please fill out the form below and mail to The Women's Growth Cooperative, P. O. Box 18087, Cleveland Heights, Ohio 44118.

Name

Address

Phone: Day

Evening

I would like to register for:

Enclosed find check for $_ (Minimum deposit of $5.00 required.) ·

Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. At other times, please leave a message on our answering machine. Phone: 321-8582