CFUW-FIFTY years of community involvement
The Sherbrooke and District branch of the Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW) has never been about a group of ladies getting together for tea and cookies.
It is one of 100 branches across the country promoting equality, social justice, fellowship and lifelong learning for women and girls.
The local chapter, celebrating 50 years of community involvement, was gathering to discuss environmental issues before recycling came along.
With a focus on education, the CFUW was pushing for local resources at a time when there were no English bookstores to speak of in the region.
Interest groups within the CFUW have raised funds to donate to local organizations as well as international humanitarian initiatives.
Its affiliated Lampe Foundation supports local students pursuing studies in a variety of fields including health, agriculture, science and vocational training with annual bursaries and scholarships.
With a mission to promote educational growth, lifelong learning and advocate for equality and human rights at a local, national and international level, tea and cookies are an afterthought, at best.
“Our challenge today is how do we better engage the younger population,” said current CFUW President Judy Hopps.
“We’ve been around for 50 years but we still seem to be one of the area’s best kept secrets.”
Hopps wants to use the 50-year milestone as an opportunity to raise awareness and the organization’s profile in the area.
At the national level, the CFUW will celebrate 100 years in 2019.
One hundred years ago women were fighting for the right to vote. Even into the 1970s local members remember being referred to as someone’s daughter or wife rather that by their own name and accomplishments.
These days, there are still important issues to confront, but they don’t come off as dramatic as getting the vote for women.
“People’s time is precious these days,” Hopps said, “they want to know whatever they do is going to contribute to the community.”
There are also more opportunities for people to get involved in their communities that didn’t exist 50 years ago.
“I think one of the directions the club has to take is partnering with other groups,” Hopps said, in an effort to adapt to changes in lifestyles.
“Our focus has always been education, and it always will be,” commented Hopps.
Among its local initiatives the CFUW has a program to teach English to newly arrived refugees.
It also has a program to support Aboriginal students who come to the area for post-secondary studies. The group offers food cards and financial support as well as assistance with scholarship applications.
The goal is to help the students break cycles of poverty in their communities by facilitating access to education.
“They have to do this themselves. Otherwise it’s just more colonialism,” Hopps said.
One of the CFUW’S current priorities is also to advocate for clean drinking water for First Nations reservations across the country.
In addition to the variety of interest groups, the CFUW also invites guest speakers to address members.
Hopps said recent speakers Terry Moore (Executive Director of the Lennoxville and District Women’s Centre) and Katie Lowry (Director of Phelps Aide Phelps Helps tutoring program) offered eye-opening accounts of the literacy crisis and the level of poverty faced by Townshippers that often goes unnoticed.
The CFUW does not enter into anything half-hearted.
While the group was officially formed in 1968, there were rumblings about the CFUW in the Sherbrooke area as early as 1965. Over the following three years, founders Lorraine Codère, Enid Hopper, Mary Chinn, Louise Dixon and Van Cornwall-jones met informally and did their homework before drafting a constitution in 1968.
Since then, the CFUW has become an integral part of the Townships community through its mandate to promote education and life-long learning in a gender-equal society.
The Record has partnered with the CFUW to give readers the opportunity to learn more about the organization in celebration of its 50th anniversary.
The CFUW will share information about its history, current initiatives and plans for the future in a series of columns over the coming months.