Victims No Longer: Participatory Planning with a Diversity of Women at Risk of Abuse

Abstract

Participation in planning has been an important topic of debate for more than 30 years. Dramatic changes in the demography of North America and the failure of existing forms of participation have highlighted the need to find new ways of working with increasingly diverse and often marginalized communities. This article describes a participatory planning project in which a diversity of participants—including aboriginal women, immigrant and racial minority women, women with disabilities, and rural women—became organized, trained, and empowered to collectively challenge social services to become more accountable and responsive to their needs.