Anna Willats with Robert Fitzgerald

3:00 - 5:00 PM
Room SS1088, Sidney Smith Hall, 100 St. George Street

How can the means be provided to help people to take on leadership roles within their communities? Anna Willats’ solution is the provision of continuing education that takes into account learners’ experiences and literacy levels, and that contains active consideration of socio-economic issues and political processes.

In this special Bousfield presentation, Anna Willats discusses Knowledge Is Power, a project developed and delivered in a community setting. One of the graduates of the course, Robert Fitzgerald, will join her to talk about its effectiveness and the teaching methods that help adult learners to achieve their goals.

Since 1982 Anna Willats has been an activist in Toronto on social justice issues, particularly violence against women. She is currently a professor in the Assaulted Women's and Children's  counsellor/Advocate Program at George Brown College. In addition, she coordinated an innovative program for survivors of violence that trained 22 women to be Residential Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Mechanics. She is working with researchers to develop best practices for teaching adults who have faced barriers such as violence, incarceration, mental health diagnoses, and poverty. Last year she worked with the Parkdale Activity Recreation Centre on a leadership/anti-oppression course that was awarded a City of Toronto Human Rights Award for Access for People With Disabilities. Anna is also a member of many organizations, including the Mayworks Festival of Working People and the Arts, the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition, and the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre/Multicultural Women Against Rape.