Archive for 'In The Media'
Hardship Fund on the chopping block (The Toronto Star)
Posted on 24. Nov, 2011 by Jeremy.
by Laurie Monsebraaten, Social Justice Reporter
Shirley Schillinger has been confined to a lumpy, cockroach-infested bed since June.
But this week, the gregarious 69-year-old pensioner, who is in chronic pain from multiple neck and back surgeries, is resting a little easier.
Thanks to Toronto’s Hardship Fund, Schillinger received a hospital bed with a special air mattress that prevents bedsores. It also has an electric lift that allows her to raise and lower her head and feet with the flick of a switch.
It means she can now sit up to watch TV and snack on bread and cheese from her bedside table during the long days she spends alone between morning and evening visits from a home-care nurse.
More crucially, the $3,500 bed allows Schillinger to remain in her downtown Toronto apartment with her beloved cat, Benson. And it will reduce the risk that she will end up in hospital at $1,000 a day or be forced to move into a $150-a-day nursing home.
Schillinger is one of about 1,300 low-income Toronto seniors and disabled people with serious medical needs who benefit from the $900,000 city fund every year. But city council voted 23-22 last month to consider axing the fund as part of its efforts to shave $360 million from next year’s budget.
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Balancing a budget on the sick and disabled (Toronto Star Editorial)
Posted on 11. Nov, 2011 by Mary.
by Laurie Monsebraaten, Social Justice Reporter
Here’s what Mayor Rob Ford considers bureaucratic gravy: a program helping the poor and disabled receive basic medical aid so they can stay out of a hospital. It’s called the Hardship Fund and it serves 1,300 people in Toronto yearly — people like Shirley Schillinger.
Although suffering from chronic pain after repeated surgeries, she’s now well-positioned to remain in the apartment where she’s lived for the past 38 years thanks to a new $3,500 bed with a special mattress and a $1,800 electric lift. It arrived a few days ago, courtesy of the Hardship Fund, reports the Star’s Laurie Monsebraaten. Schillinger, 69, would never have been able to afford it on her meager pension.
According to Toronto city council, however, that’s not money well spent. In a disgraceful abandonment of the poor, it recommended by a vote of 23 to 22 that city staff consider killing the fund to save on next year’s budget. Now a determined effort is underway to save it, spearheaded by Social Planning Toronto.
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SPT Executive Director awarded the MCC Hope & Freedom Award in Toronto
Posted on 01. Nov, 2011 by admin.
Written by: KJ Mullins
Published in Digital Journal on October 23, 2011
“Before Pride Parades, Will and Grace and the It Gets Better Campaign a man named John was working to make changes for queer youth facing bullying while at a school in Toronto.
John Campey became a trustee assistant in 1985 for the Toronto Board of Education and then as a Trustee for the Downtown Ward in 1992.
Campey used his leadership role with the school board to draft the first resource document challenging homophobia and repealed a ban on queer speakers in schools. He also saw a problem in the school setting, queer youth were being bullied and dropping out. He knew something had to be done about that. In 1992 he inaugurated an official Board Consultative Committee on the Education of Lesbian and Gay Students. The results from their work resulted in an alternative school for queer students. The Triangle Program is now 16 years old. It is still the only ‘gay’ school in Canada, a safe haven for students who can’t cope with the barriers that they face in other public schools.”
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Lesley Johnston of SPT was featured on this morning’s broadcast of CBC Radio’s “The Current” on the topic of school fundraising. Click here for a recording of the show.
Posted on 22. Sep, 2011 by admin.
Episode description provided by CBC Radio:
“School Fundraising – Lesley Johnston
It’s not obvious why a dunk tank would be an essential ingredient in a child’s education. But increasingly, fundraising events such as in Medicine Hat are at the core of school life. That’s because bake sales, raffles and casino nights can be very effective ways of generating money for school supplies, class trips or new playground equipment.
For some schools, fundraising can bring in tens of thousands of dollars. Take this new school in Calgary for example – a playground wasn’t part of the original plan for the school. Tiffany Voorsberg is a parent who fundraises for her child’s school in Calgary. We heard from her.
But not all school’s are created equally when it comes to fundraising. Schools in affluent neighbourhoods can bring in more money — often a lot more — than schools in poorer neighbourhoods. And how that gap should be bridged has even become an election issue in Ontario. We heard some thoughts on school fundraising from those on the provincial campaign trail in Ontario.
The debate over school fundraising is being further fueled by a new report called Public System, Private Money: Fees, Fundraising and Equity in the Toronto District School Board. Lesley Johnston is the principle author of the report. She’s also a research and policy analyst with the not-for-profit group, Social Planning Toronto. Lesley Johnston was in Toronto.
School Fundraising – Panel
For some thoughts on how the politics of fundraising plays out where they live, we were joined by two people. Heather Benna is the chair of the Parent Advisory Council at Lord Kitchener Elementary in Vancouver… she’s not speaking on behalf of the council though, just as a parent. And Diana Pollock is the Chair of the Parent Advisory council at Hastings Elementary in Vancouver.”
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From the mouths of taxpayers: Torontonians weigh in on city hall’s proposed service cuts
Posted on 20. Sep, 2011 by admin.
by Anita Elash
From Saturday’s Globe and Mail
Published
Israt Ahmed, 44. Married with one adult child.
Occupation: Community planner
Neighbourhood: Lawrence Avenue and Kingston Road, Scarborough. A “thriving, very mixed community” with a large immigrant population. Designated a priority neighbourhood in need of development.
Transportation: TTC. Drives an “old” Toyota for grocery shopping and visiting friends.
Her ideal city: A place with “a lot of services for people from all cross-sections and opportunities for people from different socioeconomic groups to work together.”
Most important issues: Transit, poverty.
Which city services are most important to you and which ones do you think could be cut?
Why should I have to compare child care with senior services or snow shovelling? They all are important to me. The overarching issue here is poverty. People are working but are not making ends meet. A lot of people in my neighbourhood depend on child care because that allows them to go to work. They say, “if I lose my child subsidy, I’ll have to stay home and I’ll have to apply for social assistance.” So think of the burden that it will bring to our economy if we have to take these people out of the workforce.
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