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Social Assistance Review

The People's Review of Social Assistance is a process led by 20 social assistance recipients to identify what's wrong with the current system and to propose improvements. The project is supported by the Daily Bread Food Bank and Voices from the Street.

When one mistake haunts the rest of your working life
Ban on ex-criminals from certain jobs means that their punishment never ends
My hope is that society, government and employers will look more to the individual who stands before them now, clean and sober and willing and able, and give us a chance to contribute fully to the life of the community.

Learning the price of dignity and also the need to dream big
This panel is about promoting positive change in social assistance so that people don't wait 10 years for geared-to-income housing and handicap housing; so that $3 million hospitals like the one in Thunder Bay aren't built without handicap accessible washrooms; so that everyone has decent shelter and enough good, healthy fresh food for meals every day of the month, and even transportation passes to facilitate job searches.
by Robin Taylor-Barrie, The Toronto Star, April 9, 2010

An investment that would pay
There needs to be a shift in governmental thinking when it comes to social assistance. I'd like Queen's Park to know that providing enough money for healthy diets and increasing opportunities for people to contribute their skills and abilities rather than waste away in shame and isolation would be an investment that would pay off big time in savings, especially to our burgeoning health-care budget.
by Mark Sussman, The Toronto Star, March 6, 2010

Welfare reviewed by those who know
Social assistance must be fixed so it won't be so crushing for the next person who needs help
By Sima Dini, The Toronto Star, January 28, 2010

Thin gruel on welfare `gravy train'
By Carol Goar, Toronto Star, December 14, 2009.

Five benchmarks for social assistance
Ontario's fiscal woes come as bad news for the growing number of Ontarians dealing with the fallout from the recent economic storm.
By Pat Capponi and Jennefer Laidley (members of the 25 in 5 Network for Poverty Reduction), Toronto Star, October 27, 2009.

Increase social assistance to put food in the budget.
Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the season of food drives, the perennial call to ‘feed the hungry’ over the winter holiday season. We need something better this year than a good crop of canned tuna and peanut butter.
By Nick Saul, Executive Director of The Stop Community Food Centre, and Janet Gasparini, Chair of the Social Planning Network of Ontario, Toronto Star, October 12, 2009

Broken welfare system punishes province's poor.
Ontario doesn't work for the rising tide of unemployed people who don't qualify for EI.
By Nate Laurie, Toronto Star, August 19, 2009

Time for a bold review: making social assistance meet the poverty reduction test
On June 23, 2009, the Income Security Advocacy Centre held a forum on the government's upcoming review of the provincial social assistance system.

Check out www.sareview.ca where people can share their experience of living on assistance and give their suggestion on how the system could work better.