Back in 2001 – in the time of indestructible Nokia cellphones and dial-up internet – four women teachers saw the need for technology education in Ottawa.
Together, they founded the charity iSisters. Two decades later, their hard work has paid off in spades: around 3,700 women have gone through their programs to date, each gaining invaluable skills that improve self-esteem, economic independence and earning potential.
Claire Toplis is the current board chair. An engineer by education, she calls herself a “retired technology executive.”
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For Ginger Bertrand, some of her earliest childhood memories in Ottawa are centred around healthcare. “I grew up across the street from what was originally the General Hospital,” she explains,
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“Technology was a very important part of my life for many, many years, and I saw how it was able to help me have a great and successful career,” says Toplis, whose career included stints at Nortel and consulting giant CGI.
Alongside its community partners, iSisters works with the region’s most vulnerable women, girls and gender-diverse people.
“These are the women who are living in poverty, are maybe on social assistance, or are perhaps new to the country,” Toplis says. “Many of our women may have a phone that they know how to use, but they’ve never touched a computer before.”
Programs are offered in a multitude of languages, including Arabic and, in the near future, Inuktitut. Instructors cover topics from email to search engines and, through the Career Connections program, teach resume-writing and networking and host practice interviews.
This October, iSisters received $38,500 in funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation’s Resilient Communities program. Toplis explains that, when an iSisters program finishes, students want the opportunity to continue practising their new skills.
The two-year grant will go towards “really augmenting the classroom training that we do with additional online support for virtual learning,” Toplis says, ensuring there are more touch-points with instructors and new materials for participants to dive into on their own outside the classroom.
On Nov. 29, iSisters will be hosting a community consultation to gain insights from Ottawa residents as it develops its next program offerings.
“Now more than ever, it’s so important that people know how to use a computer and how to access the internet,” Toplis says – especially since the pandemic. “They needed to be able to help their kids with school. They needed to be able to make an appointment with their doctor or maybe attend a telemedicine session.”
To make things a little easier for the community, iSisters launched the Keller Williams Integrity Realty iSisters Scholarship in 2021, providing a $1,000 bursary to one participant each year. The 2022 recipient is a newcomer to Canada who has been struggling to find employment; with the support of iSisters, she has been able to return to school and study law and legal studies at Carleton University.
Last year’s recipient was a young mom of three. “[Her] school determined that, although she was 21 years old, she couldn’t actually read or write,” Toplis says.
The organization provided her with access to assistive technology that supported her with literacy and math, helping her receive her high school diploma. Two years ago, she went on to enrol in a program at Algonquin.
“She has just finished and is now a college graduate,” Toplis says. “Her life is looking quite a bit different than it was just four years ago.”
