Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force Poverty Task Force

Poverty Task Force/United Way Community Update # 74

Dear Colleagues, 

Cathy Hird wrote in a Owen Sound Hub article that “one day is not enough”. Many partners hosted or participated in National Truth and Reconciliation Day/Orange Shirt Day last week. But we must continue to improve relations and to understand what actions we are committed to as “treaty people”. 

While May 5th, 2021 was Red Dress Day, this week is Red Dress Awareness Week. October 4th marked Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Awareness Day. A day when we honour the lives of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and gender diverse people, support grieving families, and create opportunities for healing.

The 2021 National Action Plan responds to the many demands to end violence against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people. It is meant to honour and respect Indigenous and 2SLGBTQQIA+ peoples’ values, philosophies, knowledge systems, and agencies through the prioritization of Indigenous-led solutions and services, developed in partnership and sustained through the adequate resourcing of this work. 
The National Action Plan responds to the Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and Métis Perspectives of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and LGBTQ2S+ People report.

The National Action Plan is not meant to be frozen in time; it is evergreen, recognizing the urgency for immediate action, but also the importance of continuing to cultivate transformative change over time.

COVID19 IMPACT SURVEY – GREY COUNTY & BRUCE COUNTY

  • A county-wide survey is asking Grey County and Bruce County residents how COVID-19 has impacted their daily lives. Residents are being asked to provide feedback on a range of social, economic, and health-related questions. The survey is in partnership with the University of Guelph. Results will help the County and local municipalities make important decisions regarding pandemic recovery efforts. Go to: Grey County Survey or Bruce County Survey. 

MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORTS

HOUSING SUPPORTS

  • Tamarack Is hosting a mid-Ontario Rural Community of Practice (CoP)  on Tuesday, October 12th from 1-2pm. Dominica McPherson, Coordinator of the Guelph-Wellington Task Force for Poverty Elimination, will help to kick off our conversation by sharing their YIMBY campaign and how they have reduced overall chronic homelessness by 25% and youth chronic homelessness by 76% in the community. Contact Jill Umbach if you want to join the zoom call. 
  • Rentsafe Owen Sound Collaborative: our Landlord Survey is still open. Recently Erica Phipps and Jill Umbach joined Mary Jane Murray on Rogers TV.  Start at the 30 minute mark for the Rentsafe interview. 

INCOME SUPPORTS

  • New Rules for Employment Insurance: There are new pandemic-related changes coming to the Employment Insurance system that took effect Sunday, September 26. This is a list of a few changes. To see all criteria, visit Service Canada at  https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/ei.html. 
  • Eligibility: In the last year, EI applicants received a one-time top-up of hours to help them qualify. This ends and is replaced by a requirement to have worked 420 hours to qualify. These hours will be in place until September 24, 2022. 
  • To qualify for EI-Sickness benefits, the government is again requiring a medical certificate proving the applicant is sick and can’t work. This requirement was waived over the last year because of COVID-19. 
  • Benefits: The weekly minimum payment will decline to $300/m from $500/m.  
    • Regional unemployment rates will once again be used to calculate the duration and value of benefits. 
    • Anyone with an existing EI claim won’t see any changes to the value or duration of their benefits with the new rules.  
  • Seasonal workers in 13 regions will still be eligible for 5 extra weeks of EI regular benefits until October 2022. This is specific to seasonal workers who started claims between August 5, 2018 and this coming October 30th and depends on them having 3 claims for regular or fishing benefits in the last 5 years, and at least 2 starting around the same time of year. 

FOOD SECURITY SUPPORTS

  • Meals2Motels: After 19 months, the United Way is phasing out of the Meals to Motels program as of September 30th. Close to 12,500 OSHaRE meals were delivered to those housed in motels. 
    • OSHaRE remains available to support people with meals twice a day. 
    • The YMCA Housing team will ensure there are frozen meals at the Key Motel in Chatsworth.
  • OSHaRE served more than 10,000 meals in August 2021. In all of 2019, OSHaRE served 22,000 meals. 
    • Pre-pandemic, OSHaRE was serving about 100 meals per day, and that rose to about 300 to 350 in the spring of 2020. Currently they are serving  between 150 and 200 people at lunch Monday to Saturday and from 280 to 350 at dinner Monday to Friday. All meals remain take-out due to the pandemic.
    • OSHaRE has observed that the rising cost of food and cost of living in general means they are seeing more people that need our service than ever before. There is no sign of the need waning.
  • Since March 2020, the Owen Sound Salvation Army has provided practical food assistance valued at $1,001,890.00. 
    • They have added an additional 321 new households that have never needed to use Food Bank services since the start of the pandemic.  

  FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

  • The United Way has released its 2022 call for United Way grants. Deadline is December 10th, 2021. Contact Francesca Dobbyn to discuss ideas and potential partnerships.  All the details, online application links, PDFs of the questions and any updates are on the United Way’s website: https://unitedwayofbrucegrey.com/about-us/community-impact-grants/2021-granting-call/
  • The Ontario government has announced a new $1.6 million Anti-Racism Anti-Hate Grant Program. Eligible organizations, including community-based, not-for-profit organizations, can apply for grants of $40,000 over 2 years for independent projects, or $100,000 over 2 years for partnerships between two or more organizations.

 Stay well, Jill 

Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force Poverty Task Force

Poverty Task Force/United Way Community Update # 71

Dear Colleagues

The province has announced it will require people to be fully vaccinated and provide proof of vaccination status to access certain businesses and settings starting September 22, 2021. The province has published a Frequently Asked Questions page.

All Ontarians who registered their vaccines are encouraged to download their vaccine receipt or print their vaccine receipt from the provincial booking portal, or by calling the Provincial Vaccine Booking Line at 1-833-943-3900 as proof of their vaccine status until an enhanced vaccine certificate with a QR code is available.

  • Ontarians will be required to show their vaccine receipt when entering designated settings along with another piece of photo identification, such as a driver’s licence or health card. 
  • These mandatory requirements will not apply to settings where people receive medical care, food from grocery stores, medical supplies, etc.  
  • The province is working to establish a process to prove vaccination status for people with no email, health card or ID, as well as support the implementation of vaccine certificates for Indigenous communities.
  • Ontario will support the implementation of vaccine certificates for Indigenous communities whether or not they have opted to enter their data into COVax, while maintaining Indigenous data governance, control, access and possession principles.

Many concerns have been raised around ways to ensure people who are transient or homeless will not be discriminated against. 

  • In Quebec, the province says homeless people will be exempt from the requirement to present a vaccination passport to access restaurant dining rooms and patios, as well as food courts in shopping malls, for example. However, it’s not clear how people will prove they are homeless. 
  • Several articles have been written on respecting the rights of people experiencing homelessness and challenges with living on the streets. In BC, they are also raising the issue of access to vaccine passports for people who are homeless and how this will make life more difficult. 

In Grey and Bruce County, agencies have supported people to get vaccinated and are supporting the printing out vaccine receipts. As we move forward with an Ontario Vaccine Passport, please consider how this affects the most vulnerable people that we support in our communities. 

WORKPLACE VACCINATION POLICY

  • The Grey Bruce Medical Officer of Health is recommending that local employers develop a workplace vaccination policy to protect their workers and the public from COVID-19. A workplace vaccination policy will identify the organizational expectations with regards to COVID-19 immunization of employees. The Health Unit has posted some recommendations and policy templates: http://ow.ly/bGs350G3anC 
  • The Ontario Chamber of Commerce has shared the Vax Pass Tenets to assist businesses to develop an employee vaccination policy. https://occ.ca/wp-content/uploads/OCC-Vax-Pass-Tenets.pdf 
  • The Region of Peel has announced a new employee vaccination policy.  All Regional employees are to disclose and provide documentation of their COVID-19 vaccination status. Employees who are not fully vaccinated will be required to complete educational programming about the benefits of the COVID-19 vaccination. They will also need to provide regular negative COVID tests.

HEALTH EQUITY 

  • Poverty Task Force meeting: on Friday, September 17th we shall be taking a health equity lens to the work we do. The meeting is entitled “Talking health equity: moving from response to recovery: Dr. Rim Zayed, Grey Bruce Health Unit will start off our conversation. We have also invited Federal Candidates to join us. 
  • Temporary Sick Leave: Ontario has announced it will extend a temporary sick leave program for workers at the end of December 2021.Since April 2021, the province provides 3 paid days of sick leave to accommodate self-isolation requirements during the pandemic, reimbursing employers up to $200 per day for what they pay out.
  • Virtual urgent care services: under the pandemic the development of virtual hospital Emergency Rooms is something that might become a permanent tool for our local hospitals. While not in place now, discussions are underway on how to use them effectively at Grey Bruce Health Services. 
  • Virtual UrgentCareOntario.ca: several regional hospitals announced they are partnering in a joint pilot initiative to offer virtual urgent care services to residents of southwestern Ontario. This service offers patients located outside these hospital communities the opportunity to access urgent care without leaving home.

IMPACT OF PANDEMIC ON YOUTH 

  • YWCA Canada and YMCA Canada have embarked on a new project focused on responding to the impact of the pandemic on youth. Preventing a lockdown generation Report, 2021 outlines challenges faced by youth, ages 18 to 30 years old, in light of the pandemic, and proposes policy responses to ensure youth recover and are resilient in the face of future crises. 

HOUSING SUPPORTS

  • YMCA Grey Bruce Emergency shelter: From April 1, 2020 – March 31, 2021, the program has assisted more than 800 instances of emergency shelter for a total of 8,029 nights of emergency shelter. (Compared to 2019-2020 fiscal year with 2,731 nights of shelter). 
  • Grey Bruce By Names List has a total of 119 people who are experiencing homelessness. Of those, 56 are chronically homeless. 
  • The Social Services Relief Fund, Phase 3 still has remaining funds until December 2021. Organizations should contact Josh Gibson, Josh.Gibson@grey.ca or Tania Dickson, tdickson@brucecounty.on.ca

FOOD SECURITY SUPPORTS

  • Feeding Families – Restaurant Relief initiative has now wrapped up. 75 donors gave a total of $52,000 to more than 40 local restaurants who made close to 3,500 meals that were delivered to OSHaRE. OSHaRE shared these out through their own community meal program as well as to other meal programs across Grey Bruce. 
  • Dozens of the meals were also a vital component in assisting with Covid outbreaks at a Hanover rooming house and on Saugeen First Nation when large groups of people were asked to quarantine for at least 2 weeks.  
  • Meals2Motels: 11,366 meals from April 2020 to July 2021 were delivered to people sheltering in motels. 
  • Future of Food: local growers, agri-food processors and food businesses are invited to join area partners on September 22nd, 10am-12noon for a collaborative presentation on the Future of Food.  The presentation is followed by an interactive networking session for participants. This event is designed to provide our local agriculture and food sector with the high-level information they need to plan post-COVID. This is a FREE event, but registration is required. Space is limited. To register, visit www.eventbrite.ca/e/the-future-of-food-registration-164022936017

NEWCOMERS SUPPORTS

  • Grey Bruce Newcomers Welcoming Week are hosting a week of celebrations to showcase diverse communities across Grey-Bruce, to foster an inclusive community and welcome newcomers. The first annual “Welcoming Week” will be from September 10 to 19, 2021.  Learn more at: News & Events | Grey Bruce Local Immigration Partnership .

Stay well, Jill 

Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force Poverty Task Force

Poverty Task Force/United Way Community Update # 59

Dear Colleagues, 

Today many of us have joined the Tamarack Institute’s End of Poverty AGM. Over 70 communities across Canada have come together (700 adults/92 people with lived experience and 350 youth). The conference is using an interactive Howspace digital platform. Check it out! It is very dynamic. 

  • Tamarack officially launched their new name – shifting from “Cities Reducing Poverty” to “Communities Ending Poverty”.  This recognizes the work being down in rural communities as well as cities. 
  • Mayor Naheed Nenshi, City of Calgary was the keynote speaker. He leads Calgary’s Enough for All poverty reduction strategy and roundtable. Their motto is “My neighbours’ strength is my strength. My neighbours’ success is my success. My neighbours’ failure is my failure.”  Mayor Nenshi spoke to the fact that we are “all in the same storm, but we are not all in the same boat”.
    • Women, people living in racialized communities and in poverty are hardest hit by COVID. 
    • People living in poverty are at higher risk to COVID. 
    • The pandemic has widened the income gap.  
  • People with Lived Experience Perspective: a video was featured which included members of our Community Voices. 
  • Rural Communities reducing poverty workshop: our Indigenous-led Giiwe Circles team of Diane Giroux, M’Wikwedong IFC and Carlos Sanchez-Pimienta, Queen’s University gave a powerful presentation on its trasformative model.
    • Giiwe gave a strong message that we need to invest more in relationships and building trust if we are to address reconciliation issues, and Indigenous homelessness.  
    • Giiwe creates a safe space to discuss very uncomfortable and sometimes “messy and slow” issues.  But if we stay with those feelings we can transform how we work and be more successful in the work we do; and more importantly in improving Indigenous peoples’ lives. 

Yesterday, we took time to recognize Missing and Murdered Indigneous Women and join the Calls for Justice.  

  • Human rights and Indigenous rights abuses and violations condoned by the  Canadian government have resulted in the denial of safety, security and human dignity. They are the root causes of the violence against Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA. 
  • The Calls for Justice come from the National Enquiry –  Reclaiming Power and Place and call upon all Canadians and sectors to end systemic violence against Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA. 

 FOOD SECURITY

  • Food Secure Canada has released its comments on the Federal Budget 2021. 
  • Meals2Motels: is a partnership to provide meals (hot and frozen) to individuals and families sheltering in motels (Owen Sound and Chatsworth). 
    • 92,840 meals have been delivered in the last year.
    • January 2021 was the busiest month with over 1,200 meals delivered. February was the largest single week with 370 meals delivered.  
    • 252 hampers with multi-purpose kettles were created and all but 39 pre-positioned/distributed at motels. 
    • On Fridays the people receive Friday’s supper (hot), Saturday lunch supper (cold) Sunday lunch and supper (frozen). 
    • On Mondays United Way staff make an extra run with a Monday lunch.
  • Many partners deliver this program – the YMCA Housing, M’Wikwedong and the Women’s Centre shelter people in motels and maintain a daily number. OSHaRE cooks and assembles meals, along with frozen meals prepared by the St Aiden’s Frozen Meal program. Habitat for Humanity (Apr to Nov 2020) and the United Way (Nov to now) deliver the food daily. 
  • Grey County funds the daily mileage cost and staffing costs have been covered by the partner organizations. 
  • For more information on this initiative: United Way of Bruce Grey 519-376-1560, Y-Housing Joan Chamney, 519-371-9230, OSHaRE Colleen Trask- Seaman, 519-376-3899. 
  • Good Food Box:  Hanover Good Food Box started up at John Diefenbaker Secondary School led by Dawn MacKay (dawn_mackay@bwdsb.on.ca). With the school closed they are working in partnership with the Salvation Army Hanover to provide a location. (see attached poster).    
  • The Sponsored Box program is underway. Agencies and community donations can pre-pay for boxes. When sponsored boxes are purchased, tokens are distributed. Tokens may be used by customers at any GFB location but they must submit their tokens in advance of pickup.  
  • Agencies interested in purchasing tokens or receiving community donations for their clients may contact gbgoodfoodbox@gmail.com. 
  • Donations to purchase Good Food Box tokens for households in need can be made through OSHaRE (gbgoodfoodbox@gmail.com). A $200 donation will provide a household with a monthly Good Food Box for 1 year. 

HEALTH EQUITY 

  • Frontline organizations in Ontario will soon have access to free, rapid, self-administered COVID-19 screening tests through a new program called Stop the Spread and Stay Safe. The program, run by the Canadian Red Cross in partnership with the Government of Canada, is now accepting pre-registration from organizations in Ontario. 
  • To qualify, organizations must be a charity or non-profit, or an Indigenous community organizations with five (5) personnel (staff and volunteers) who work in close proximity to each other or have direct contact with community members.

YOUTH AND MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORTS

  • Sick Kids-led study (Feb 2021) found more than 70% of children aged 2 to 18 years expressed feeling lonely, overwhelmed, sleepless, worried, sad, irritable, anxious or stressed during the first wave, with isolation posing a significant risk factor.
  • Education Minister Stephen Lecce is set to announce an $80 million fund for school boards to hire up to 1,000 additional mental health workers for the next two years. 
  • Tamarack has been supporting youth outcomes through its Youth Futures Initiative.  Tamarack Institute and the Government of Canada, through the Goal Getters program, have committed to a 5-year pan-Canadian project to develop collective impact and system-wide solutions for youth as they build and act upon plans for their future   

Stay well, Jill