October 17 is International Day for the Eradication of Poverty and a group of people living in poverty and their friends descended on City Hall. The Mayor was in…
Kendall Worth tackles the stigma of disability and poverty, especially when dealing with landlords who don’t understand the first thing about the realities of income assistance.
ACORN Nova Scotia asked municipal candidates in North End Halifax, Dartmouth East, Dartmouth Centre and Spryfield where they stand on issues that matter to people who live in poverty. Things like affordable housing, slum landlords, and pay day loan sharks. Here are their responses.
Kendall Worth on the hard work that being on social assistance entails, and how you gain an assortment of valuable experiences that you should be able to list on your resume. We’re talking about skills like economical shopping, policy research and building community. And you have to be a real mathematical genius to make ends meet.
The Books Beyond Bars collective has been supporting women in the Burnside Correctional Facility since 2005. They try hard to find any book that people express an interest in, and also offer a read-aloud program for moms and grandmothers. Now they need a little bit of help.
Kendall Worth returns to the topic of paid poverty advocacy work, and how to make it a win win for everybody. It can be done. Business plan attached!
This week’s featured video is Cottonland, a 2006 documentary about recovering addict Eddie Buchanan and the damage the prescription painkiller oxycontin is doing to his friends and neighbors in Glace Bay, Cape Breton. It’s also about the shutting down of the coal mines. And it’s about a bunch of exceptional people, loving parents, funny, with big hearts. They’re also thieves who do or did terrible things.
Some excellent points were made at a well-attended press conference organized by low income people in the North End on the topic of poverty and the municipal election. It fell a bit on deaf ears, though, as just one reporter and one municipal candidate made an appearance.
Another installment of “Lives on Welfare, people on social assistance talk about what it’s like to be poor in Nova Scotia. Bernice, who we first met last week, on how hopeless being on welfare makes you feel, and how it takes away your dignity.
A 65-year old New Glasgow woman who suffers from severe Multiple Chemical Sensitivities has been ordered to vacate the only house where she can live in relative safety. She has been unable to find an alternative that doesn’t put her health at risk, and desperately wants the Housing Authority to abandon its eviction notice.