Canadians may have traditionally waited to see what the government would do for them, but in the country, they are joining forces to replace government efforts. Rural communities whose organizations and citizens demonstrate commitment to proactive community building, particularly for healthcare services, can be great places to live.

Large cities are not for everyone. Air pollution, noise, declining security and grid-locked traffic are just a few reasons urban lifestyles are not attractive to everyone. Rising costs and taxes mean some cannot afford the city, especially if they want to own a house.

Brian and Susan Wendel (name change) were ready to move to the country after more than three decades in one of Canada's largest cities. Their health problems were aggravated by city living and so they could not work to supplement retirement income. The Wendels cashed in their family home, pocketed more than C$750,000 and went shopping for a new, less expensive house in the country. Availability of medical services was near the top of their list. Months later, they are both healthier and more active since moving to the vibrant, close-knit Eastern Ontario community they now call home -- and they still have almost C$500,000 in the bank!

Among the range of volunteer and not-for-profit organizations that keep the Wendel's small town humming is a women's group -- widely-respected around the world and virtually unknown in Canada's cities -- that is responsible, over its long history, for establishing many services and institutions that are the backbone of successful country living.

Rural communities face a variety of special issues including lack of transportation, reduced access to qualified professionals, scarcity of services and limited availability of information. The Women's Institutes have been instrumental in bringing community needs to the forefront of public attention since 1897. The Federated Women's Institutes of Ontario (FWIO) renewed its purpose in 1999 with the implementation of the ROSE (rural Ontario sharing education) Program, an initiative that has improved access to reliable and accurate information for rural communities.

By May 2001, over 800 WI members were trained and ready to organize ROSE Sessions for their communities. Since then, more than 10,000 people have attended the hundreds of meetings, while over 400,000 pieces of educational resources are in appreciative hands.

The FWIO is a charitable organization, with affiliates around the world, that works with and for rural and urban women and their families. Through the network of branches and the efforts of its 9,000 members, FWIO offers high quality education and support programs and services, and advocates for social and economic change.

More than 100 years ago, WI's founder, Adelaide Hunter Hoodless (later influential in establishing the Victorian Order of Nurses) led a passionate crusade to educate women about the dangers of unpasteurized milk after it killed her son. The result was the Women's Institute movement, which started in Ontario and swept the world. By 1925, most people knew about WI because branches were popping up all over the province. For decades, WI's were vital to their communities, but in the 1960s the nature of country living began to change as schools were centralized, rural churches closed and automobiles carried people to shops in town. Government downsizing in the 1990s left WI and other charitable organizations without government support.

As rural communities undergo significant challenges, the Women's Institutes continue to confront each problem with a solution. FWIO led the development of educational programs that empowered women in the 70s, promoted recycling in the 80s and fostered the Safe and Healthy Communities project in the 1990s. The Disney film The Calendar Girls told the true story of an English WI group who posed nude for a fund-raising calendar that went into several re-printings to meet demand.

The ROSE Program offers WI members and rural communities access to curriculum, resources, promotional material and support to organize local ROSE education sessions. Through tireless support from WI members, the ROSE Program exceeded its original expectations by generating province-wide interest with new partner requests, by increasing WI branch growth and by raising awareness of rural health and social issues. Due to the overwhelming success of the ROSE Program, December 2002 marked the beginning of the "ROSES are Blooming" Expansion Project, supported by over 600 enthusiastic WI branches and funded by The Ontario Trillium Foundation.

According to one 97 year-old WI member who remains actively committed to supporting FWIO in its second century of preserving and improving the rural way of life, "Never let the brain idle; always keep thinking and learning. The ROSE Program is helping to do just that. Remember, the power of knowledge and the value of education can never be measured."

Published: October 26, 2004

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