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.
Last week we reported that Mainline Needle Exchange in Halifax is facing a budget crunch, this week the news is that its Cape Breton counterpart may well close its doors early next year because the federal government is no longer funding the organization. Time for the province to step up to the plate.
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.
Mainline Needle Exchange, an organization that helps people who live with drug addictions in mainland Nova Scotia, can’t keep up with the demand, something the provincial government is trying hard to ignore. Lives are at stake. The Nova Scotia Advocate went to Mainline’s open house to find out more.
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.
Our series “Lives on welfare” continues. Meet Bernice. She cut her power bill, only to see Community Services deduct the savings from her monthly cheque. “What do you do? I am just exhausted, from arguing. I am taking my frustration out on my worker, but she has no control, so she takes the crappy end of it. But if you are so frustrated she is the one you vent too, and I keep apologizing to her, I am sorry, I know it’s not your fault.”
Poverty activist Kendall Worth directs his attention at our educational system. Why we should teach about local poverty at all levels of education, and what that might look like. Kendall has a couple of great ideas!
Watch this wonderful documentary by Nova Scotia’s Nance Ackerman, about the exceptional eight-year old Isaiah and his equally remarkable family as they live in poverty in the Annapolis Valley.