Our First Wiley Women's Dream Centre Graduates!

Our first Women’s Dream Centre opened on International Women’s Day in 2011 with the generous support of one of our long time friends and supporters, John Wiley & Sons. The Wiley Women’s Dream Centre aims to bring together our Dream Centre model of “skills for learning, skills for life” with our Daisy Chains women’s literacy, numeracy and business skills program. The 6 focus skills are:

There are 6 modules in the program which aim to give practical context to the skills being taught. The modules are:

·         Me!

·         My family

·         Schedules

·         Shopping

·         Wellness

·         What next?

In December 2011, the first batch of women graduated from the Wiley Women’s Dream Centre amidst lots of singing and dancing. They were so excited – a very lively bunch! They wrote and sang a special song to thank everyone for their support too.  Rather than having a single MC as we do for our Dream Centre graduations, we had a “hot potato” approach – when the music stopped, the woman holding the ball had to share her experiences in the Centre with the group. This way everyone had an opportunity to share and it really showed their newfound confidence. It was fantastic to see them proudly reading their experiences from their notebooks – no more illiteracy in this group!

Thanks, Wiley, and congratulations to our wonderful women! We look forward to seeing what how they continue to work towards their dreams! The majority of them have been accepted into skills training programs to enable them to continue to develop their skills with their newfound literacy.