The study reported in this article was initiated in response to the paucity of literature focused on Canadian lesbians with cancer. The aims of the study were broadly defined: to increase understanding of Canadian lesbians' experiences with cancer and cancer care, and to suggest directions for change such that lesbians with cancer might be better supported by service providers and lesbian communities. The qualitative study, set in Ontario, Canada, employed a participatory action research model. Twenty-six lesbians were interviewed about their experiences of cancer and cancer care. This article reports research participants' narratives about lesbian community. Findings reveal the complex and sometimes contradictory ways that lesbian community unfolds in the lives of lesbians with cancer. While most participants experienced robust and competent community support, participants also reported instances of isolation and disconnection linked to fear of cancer, homophobia in the broader community, and patterns of exclusion within lesbian communities. As well, while lesbian community norms and values appeared to buffer the negative effects of treatment-related physical changes, such norms also manifested as prescriptions for lesbians with cancer. Findings affirmed the value of creating networks among lesbians with cancer within a context of increased accessibility to mainstream cancer services.

The implementation of an anti-oppression approach in feminist agencies must deal with contradictory tensions within the model. Feminists imagine anti-oppression as a model of practice that deals with all structures of oppression. At the same time, feminist members of marginalized communities perceive that their particular form of oppression is not attended to in the model. The authors contend that one must understand anti-oppression practice within the historical and social conditions that create inequity and offer implications for practice. C ommunity-based social service agencies in Toronto have been affected by calls to integrate an anti-oppressive practice model that deals with the multiple oppressions experienced by women who have been marginalized. The demand for organizational change has come from practitioners, as well as from community members and agency funders (Barnoff, 2002). As a result, many social work agencies are engaging in some form of anti-oppressive practice. At the same time, agency personnel struggle to determine the precise nature of anti-oppression practice and how to integrate an anti-oppressive approach systemically within organizational systems (Barnoff, 2002).This article is based on research that investigated the processes that are associated with introducing anti-oppression models in organizational structures. Specifically, the study explored how practitioners in feminist social work agencies in Toronto have worked to implement anti-oppression frameworks in their organizational practices. A major goal of the project was to explore concrete organizational experiences to learn more about how to implement an anti-oppressive model effectively. The research also focused on the critical factors that help and hinder the introduction of anti-oppression frameworks into practice.In this article, we argue that the implementation of an anti-oppression approach that is focused on multiple oppressions in feminist agencies must deal with a contradictory tension within the model. Whereas feminists imagine anti-oppression in its ideal form as a model of practice that deals with all structures of oppression, members of marginalized communities perceive that their particular form of oppression is not attended to. Instead, these women view the introduction of an anti-oppression form of practice as a replication of the invisibility they have experienced in the past. In the first section of this article, we discuss the literature on anti-oppression practice. In the second section, we outline the

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This paper examines the findings of a study we completed into progressive social work education in Canadian schools of social work. In our research, we found that schools of social work offer three key functions for the university: a connection to the community, a space that values diversity and a space of innovation. We investigate these themes in relation to the dynamics of performativity and fabrication. From conversations with those who participated in our research, it is clear that schools of social work play a key role in the university in terms of constructing a particular institutional image-a fabricated image. We articulate some key aspects of performance that are drawn upon in fabricating contemporary Canadian universities and the ways in which social work is positioned to enhance this fabrication. In the conclusion, we reflect upon what these findings and analysis mean for social work education.