Kendall Worth: Lonely hearts
Kendall Worth on romance, poverty and a man on social assistance and a woman talking on a bus. “The woman asked, so why are you not married and have kids?.”
Community Services
Kendall Worth: Let’s see some real transformation for people on social assistance after hearing about it for five years or so
Kendall Worth on the Community Services transformation project: “We understand things don’t happen overnight. However the length of time this transformation has been taking to date is concerning and frustrating to people in the community. Right now we are five years into the transformation and very few problems for people who depend on this system have gotten resolved. Why is the length of this transformation process taking so long for people to see positive results?”
Adventure in FOIPOP land
Late last year I received a response to a Freedom of Information request that has all significant information greyed out. It’s a presentation about cost savings as a result of the Community Services Transformation Project. If a government initiative potentially will save money, possibly at the detriment of service levels, shouldn’t we be allowed to know how so, and how much?
Sister-to-sister: an open letter to Minister Kelly Regan
” I am the mother of a nine-year old boy living with autism in a province that has been defined as one of Canada’s autism wastelands, given its lack of services and funding,” writes Nancy Spina in an open letter to Minister Kelly Regan. “Outdated and inflexible criteria have an impact on children with disabilities and on the women who care for them who lose the opportunity of providing for their families, and having fulfilling careers.”
Welfare recipients keep getting poorer in Canada’s most miserly province
A recently published report shows that incomes for people on welfare in Nova Scotia are terribly insufficient, and on a downward trajectory. They are also by and large the lowest in Canada.
Tim Blades at the Lower Sackville My Week on Welfare screening: I want to be part of a solution
Poverty activist and welfare recipient Tim Blades speaks at the recent screening of My Week on Welfare in Lower Sackville. His message is not the one that Community Services would like you to hear, but it’s rooted in lived experience.
Community Services transformation: No lack of spin during info sessions
Recently Community Services organized a series of info sessions to provide an update to stakeholders on the ESIA transformation. I couldn’t go of course, since I am merely a grouchy old journalist and not a stakeholder. But I talked to a few anti-poverty advocates, and this is what I found out.
Kendall Worth: Let’s find a solution for people living in poverty when they need day surgery
Kendall Worth shows once again how what most people would consider simple problems are often almost insurmountable obstacles for people on income assistance. Poverty, stigma and isolation make many things much more complicated.
Kendall Worth: My experience attending a recent Community Services information session on income assistance
Our correspondent Kendall Worth attended one of the welfare transformation meetings organized by Community Services, and he came back disappointed.
There but for the grace of God … Aron Spidle tells Nova Scotia MLAs about a broken social assistance system
In September several MLAs from all three parties attended a screening of My Week on Welfare at the auditorium of the Nova Scotia Art Gallery in downtown Halifax. This is what Aron Spidle, who is featured in the documentary, told the MLAs. “When a friend asks me to do something with them, the first thing that occurs to me is to ‘how can I get out of this gracefully?’ because most of the time I cannot afford it.”