jillumbach Advocacy, Media, Upcoming Events

Public Consultations

26 July 2013

To develop a renewed Poverty Reduction Strategy, we continue to need your advice, guidance and expertise.

Public and online consultations for a renewed strategy will begin the week of August 6th. There will also be opportunities for people to provide additional input by organizing their own consultations in their communities and submitting their individual ideas. Check back here to have your say through an online feedback form and a toolkit to facilitate your own consultation.

Consultations will seek feedback on, but not be limited to, the following:

  • Elements of the current strategy that have worked well or need improvement
  • Refining execution of current policies, programs and initiatives
  • Continued barriers to success
  • New models of collaboration and partnership
  • Areas of special priority and urgency

Until online consultations start on August 6, you can send your thoughts on the following two questions to povertystrategy@ontario.ca.

  1. Based on your experience and perspective, what areas and/or specific initiatives do you believe have worked well in the first five years of the Poverty Reduction Strategy? Please share specific examples of success that you think should be continued or expanded.
  2. What do you think are the top three priorities to overcome poverty?

If possible, please try to limit your responses to 500 words or less per question.

An Ambitious Target

In our first Poverty Reduction Strategy, we set an ambitious target of reducing child poverty by 25 per cent over 5 years.

We set ambitious targets with the belief that we cannot and should not limit ourselves by lowering our expectations on what we think we can achieve. Despite our progress and due to an uncertain economic climate, it is unlikely that the target will be met. The ambitious target gave us something to strive toward, raised the bar for success, and set the foundation for future work.

One of the key considerations in the new strategy will be the views of stakeholders and Ontarians about the value of such a bold, stretch target. Has it helped to spur progress? Should it be maintained or altered for the future? Let us know what you think at povertystrategy@ontario.ca.

Collaboration Makes It Happen

The provincial government is one of many key contributors to building solutions to this deeply interdependent challenge. Everyone plays a role in building a good, strong economy and in reducing poverty. One of the biggest lessons of the first five years is that many innovative models for collaboration and partnership exist that result in some of the most creative and effective ways to address poverty.

Share your views on the importance of collaborative models working together. Tell us about any specific examples from which you think everyone can learn at povertystrategy@ontario.ca.

jillumbach Media, Upcoming Events

Ontario to Consult on Development of New Poverty Strategy

NEWS RELEASE

Ontario Government Renewing Its Commitment to Reduce Poverty

Province to Consult with Ontarians on Development of New Strategy

July 26, 2013 12:30 p.m.Ministry of Children and Youth Services

Ontario is renewing its commitment to reduce poverty with the launch of province-wide consultations to hear how government and communities can continue to work together to break the cycle of poverty.

Feedback from the consultations will contribute to the development of a new five-year Poverty Reduction Strategy for Ontario.

Breaking the Cycle: Ontario’s Poverty Reduction Strategy was launched in 2008, signalling a bold, new vision for a fairer society. Despite a difficult economic climate, more than 40,000 children and their families were lifted out of poverty between 2008 and 2010.

Government-led community consultations will begin in early August and continue into October. Individuals and organizations will also have the opportunity to conduct consultations in their communities and provide feedback.

Reducing poverty and creating more opportunities for families is part of the Ontario government’s plan to build a fairer, more prosperous society and help people in their everyday lives.

Quick Facts

  • More information and online consultations will be available atwww.ontario.ca/breakingthecycle on August 6, 2013.
  • Over 950,000 children in 510,000 families are benefiting from the Ontario Child Benefit. The benefit increased this July to a maximum annual payment of $1,210 for each child, and will increase to $1,310 in July 2014.
  • Over 690,000 children receive healthy food in Ontario schools through the Student Nutrition Program so they are better prepared to learn.
  • A government-appointed advisory panel is consulting with Ontarians to examine the province’s current minimum wage, which has increased 50 percent since 2003, from $6.85 to $10.25 an hour.
  • A single parent with a young child, working full-time at minimum wage and accessing all available benefits was living above the poverty line in 2012. The same single parent would have been living below the poverty line in 2003.
  • The Poverty Reduction Act, 2009 requires Ontario to develop a new poverty reduction strategy at least every five years.

Quotes

“It is important that we build on the momentum of the first Poverty Reduction Strategy to create a more prosperous and fair Ontario. That is why we’re asking for input from Ontarians as we work towards a new strategy. Together, we can find practical solutions to help families break the cycle of poverty.”

Teresa Piruzza, Minister of Children and Youth Services

“Poverty erects barriers to health and happiness. A renewed poverty reduction strategy will help open the way to more opportunities for all Ontarians.”

Ted McMeekin, Minister of Community and Social Services

jillumbach Media, Partner Activities

CMHA gardens look to the community

By Tracey Richardson, Sun Times, Owen Sound

Wednesday, July 10, 2013 4:35:13 EDT PM

OWEN SOUND – The Canadian Mental Health Association wants to share its bounty.

Vegetable gardens for its Union Place drop-in centre brunch program in Owen Sound have been prolific since their inception four or five years ago, and now members of the community can take over an additional garden bed for their own use.

This year, three members of the community have asked for and been given a bed to grow and tend their own vegetables at the St. George’s tennis courts alongside the Union Place gardens. The beds are enclosed in a wood structure and are about a metre wide and two metres in length. Lettuce, kale, tomatoes, beans, pumpkins, peas, strawberries, eggplant and rhubarb spill out from the containers.

Site coordinator Teresa Pearson said she and CMHA executive director Claude Anderson batted around the idea months ago about letting people from the general community take on some beds for their own use.

“One of the things we’ve talked about is that larger concept of a community garden, and how it becomes people from all walks of life, whether it’s seniors who have farmed or gardened their whole life and who are now in an apartment building and don’t have a garden plot, but would love to, or whether it’s people who would like to garden on our team but we’re full. What about giving them a garden bed?”

The CMHA hires 10 people to work a few hours a week in gardens located at St. George’s, United Way, and in the snack gardens along the east harbour wall. The produce goes to the drop-in centre’s brunch program, which is run every morning from Monday to Friday. Nothing is wasted. There are three freezers, and extra produce gets made into salsa and sauces, or kitchen and garden workers take home anything that’s left.

But there’s room to grow, Pearson says. There are 63 beds at St. George’s, 19 at United Way and four along the harbour. Community members who sign on for a garden bed at St. George’s can use the tools, water, and even expertise the CMHA brings in on a regular basis from the Master Gardeners of Grey County, who donate some of their time.

Union Place began its brunch program a few years ago, and it’s become a popular gathering place for people in need of help and a nutritious meal.

“If they have a serious mental health illness, often times they’ll go on to become members, but they needed to first come and check out the space and see what it’s all about, and get their life settled,” Pearson said. “Some people come every day because they love the social contact. It’s very nutritious meals that are provided. They love the meals, they love the contact, they’ll sit and read the paper and then be on their way for the day.”

If they want help, they can get referrals from Pearson, but it’s up to them.

“I think if you offer a program to the community, the people that need it and want to come will come, and I think it’s really important that there’s no stigmatization. Everyone is welcome.”

Help also comes in the form of employment, both in the gardens and the kitchen.

For some of them, Pearson said it’s the first job they’ve had in years. It gives them employable skills and encourages them “to remember what is great about them.”

Tending the gardens allows them also to see the full circle of food production, from planting to consuming, Pearson said.

Randy Sillars tends a garden bed for the program, after being referred by his addictions counsellor. He said he’s always enjoyed gardening, and his garden container bears proof of this. Only positive things come from gardening, he said. “It’s therapeutic, it’s not hurting anyone and the end result is great because other people benefit.”

He also likes being busy, he said, and “it gives me a purpose.”

Pearson said she has no idea how popular the community garden concept might become.

“I would love to eventually see that really grow into literally people from all walks of life, all ages, gardening together, sharing their stories, being a support to each other.”

The snack gardens along the harbour walkway are for anyone to scoop vegetables from. There are tomatoes in them, carrots, radishes as big around as golf balls, snow peas and beans. Signs will soon go up alerting people to the fact that they’re community snack gardens, and will also tell people to call Pearson if they’d like to tend their own garden.

The garden program receives help from the United Way, Community Foundation Grey Bruce, the city and workers from Union Gas and Barry’s Construction have built many of the wood containers. Seeds and other supplies are donated or provided at cost by Annan-Way Nursery.

Pearson can be contacted at 519-371-3642, ext 184.

jillumbach Media

What Happens If You Try To Live On McDonald’s Wages: A Budget

By Claire Gordon  | Posted Jul 17th 2013 @ 11:17AM

While fast food workers across the country are asking for a “living wage,” McDonald’s has launched a budgeting website with Visa to help its employees deal better with the money they’ve got. The “sample budget” provided was greeted with sneers, and sure enough, with more realistic numbers, this McDonald’s employee would go into over $50 of debt a day.

Critics of the McDonald’s budget pointed out that it involved employees working a second job, turning off their heat, spending just $20 a month on health insurance, and never buying food or clothing. But even more glaringly, the budget ignores a fundamental fact of the fast food workforce: it increasingly includes women with children. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the median age of a fast-food worker is now 28; and for women, who make up most of the workers, the median age is 32.

So AOL Jobs decided to write up a second budget for a McDonald’s employee who is a single parent with one child living in Newaygo County, Michigan, which has the average cost of living for the country. The income numbers are the same, but the expenses are based on the “budget calculator” from the liberal think tank the Economic Policy Institute, excluding tax, but with the original budget’s ambitious $100 of monthly savings.

As you can see below, our McDonald’s employee with a second job and one child will go into $1,548 of debt each month, or $51.60 a day.