Voices of Advocacy

About the project

Peggy's Allan Thomas Fellowship project was designed to support and develop capacity for advocacy by older women in civil society through practice-related research with the Canadian Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign.

The objectives of the project are to:

  1. Reflect on and document the factors that have led to the building of a successful foundation for the grandmothers movement and factors that engage, nurture and sustain older women activists in civil society.
  1. Break down stereotypes about aging and older women.
  1. Identify the skills, commitments and experiences that older women bring to advocacy activities in civil society, the benefits and barriers associated with participating, and their learning and skill development needs.
  1. Document the lessons learned about engaging and empowering older women who work as voluntary advocates at the grassroots level.
  1. Widely share the results so as to promote the importance and value of older women as volunteers and to help build capacity in civil society for engaging this large, too often invisible segment of the population.

The project addresses the following primary question: How do we engage, nurture, sustain and grow older women advocates in civil society?

About Peggy

Peggy Edwards is a health promotion consultant, writer and activist for social justice living in Ottawa, Ontario Canada. Peggy specializes in issues and concepts related to aging and gender. She is the primary author of two seminal World Health Organization reports on aging policy and women and aging as well as “Healthy Aging in Canada: A New Vision, A Vital Investment”. Peggy and co-author Mary Jane Sterne are co-authors of the best-selling book Intentional Grandparenting: A Boomer’s Guide (McClelland and Stewart 2005).

Peggy is a founding member of the National Advocacy Committee, Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign and the co-founder of the One World Grannies-- one of 26 grandmother groups in the Ottawa/Gatineau Region.

Peggy has 4 adult children, 11 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren.