Changing the Rules: A Board Game Lets Homeless Women Tell Their Stories

This article describes a project carried out at Auberge Madeleine, a shelter for homeless women in Montreal, Canada, the objective of which was to better understand the strategies used by homeless women to deal with the difficulties they encounter in their day-to-day lives. Working in partnership with shelter workers, the authors sought to amplify the voices of a population whose strength and life skills are often devalued. To create a setting that would support the women's narratives, the workers created an original board game that would give participants new ways to think and talk about themselves. This article examines how this game, in addition to serving as an interesting data collection instrument, also turned out to be a promising intervention tool with excellent potential for practioners interested in group work with marginalized populations.