Support Springboard Solutions: Not Simply Sustenance

November 6, 2009 by charlesgoodall
Filed under: Personal Experience

I am very glad that I was able to rely upon Ontario Works when I was suffering a devastating illness. I received a lot of good strong administrative support and help to get me to where I needed to be at the time.

However, the small amount of money does create a very small pool of opportunity as well. Everything costs something. Distressed people need the basic shelter, food and community services and can just afford them if they are careful, frugal, and often must live in less-than-standard housing conditions. The rent and expenses ratio on a typical cheque does not support a decent standard of living in present times. Of course with the present world economy and Canadian economy negative situation as it has been, and with the Ontario economy bottoming out with unemployment, there is not much money going around right now. But are there ways to restructure the Ontario Works budgets to provide a better overall service that puts opportunity as well as sustenance into recipients’ homes and pockets?

I do believe that the current payment situation creates a real-life ghetto for people who are not resourceful. My experience tells me that some people who receive Ontario Works are not resourceful, but, as we see from the posts, many people simply need more. More money resources. (By the way, many ordinary working folks may not be resourceful either, but they are able to take care of themselves as they are in a stable situation). The people who need Ontario Works are often not in a stable situation, beyond merely subsisting. I would definitely support some kind of review which matches need to circumstances more realistically, so that Ontario Works recipients can enjoy a quality of life that is not a ghetto, rather it is a true springboard.

In this small community, there are many OW recipients. Some of these people do not have any knowledge about nutrition and wellness, which is one of the fundamental areas where they need support. Of course an OW cheque is going to disappear quickly when it is a small amount to begin with, and then the OW recipient is relying on a lot of processed food. Not inexpensive and definitely unhealthy. Witness the obesity rates among the OW recipients. What are the children in OW families eating, and how can they grow to learn well and contribute fully to real society? How can a person energize themselves to achieve when they are really poor and starving. I believe that there should be standard nutrition and wellness counselling that includes a shopping list standard, a shopping list evaluation, and the opportunity to take some community cooking classes (perhaps in the home economics kitchens at a nearby school as continuing ed.) so that they can learn to purchase and prepare basic decent food like oatmeal, pasta, legumes and so forth. And what about fresh food? I never had much when I was on OW. But the true benefits of fresh foods cannot be denied in terms of quality of nutrition. Especially in a farming community, there must be some way to share the abundance of the harvest and even freezers in some facility to help people to have the necessary nutrition of fruits and vegetables. Not luxury — basic sustenance that works. How about community gardens where some OW recipients can plant and grow their own house crops? I know this works in some urban settings — but where is such initiative (administration/facilities) in the rural regions?

I would have been glad to have the opportunity, when I was receiving OW, to participate in a program that would at least provide me with healthy fruits and vegetables. I am already well-traveled in the nutrition area, as a part of my on-going health-building. Even when I was least able to work, I would have been glad to work in a farm or processing situation that would allow me to contribute as I was able. Few hours, light labour, and so forth. For a wage. I don’t believe that anything like that was ever proposed to me and I did not find any information like that, in those days. By the way, earnings should be encouraged and should be capped higher so that an OW recipient can at least afford to buy more groceries, transportation, clothing or whatever they really need. Perhaps $250 to $300 as with ODSP. If that is already in place then I am glad to be corrected.

Wouldn’t any OW recipient parent be glad, if they are able to work at all, to be able to provide the means and gear that may be required for their children to actively participate in esteem-building activities. Backpacks and supplies for school, snow-suits and good boots for the heart-stopping cold winter, and sports equipment are provided in part by generous local folks and community campaigns. However, from my view of the people in the community, the poorest people have inadequate clothing to participate in the daily walk of life let alone having any more. Definitely there is something lacking in their means to provide those items which are used by the ordinary, self-supporting communities.

The Special Diet option was essential to my well-being as a very ill person. I was shocked to learn that other seriously ill people were losing that benefit and was appauled when I received my first cheque without the benefit attached. When considering the size of the OW benefit cheque, then receiving about 20% less, is truly destructive. I wonder how many people managed to get around that situation without becoming more ill, critically or permanently ill, or dead. That benefit should be reinstated, without hesitation, to help ill OW recipients to maintain better health for longer.

Finally, I know that there are a lot of pharmaceuticals delivered by doctors into this OW communitiy. Very often they are required of course, however, when people become dependent, or they don’t follow the normal doctor/patient protocols (due to transportation budgets, mental illnesses) where is the follow-up? No one wants to be a pharmaceutical zombie. These people want and deserve special care to elevate from basic mental and physical health to an achieving level. Money should be spent to help OW people to live a healthy productive life without being stupefied by powerful drugs.

The package of social support via OW, which is a wide paint brush on a large canvas, includes a lot of good strong supports, no doubt. But managing one’s life with scant or under-managed resources in very stressful to the OW recipient. However, there needs to be a lot of communication about the real life needs v. subsistence needs of people who are in “the system” to help them to move out of it as quickly and eagerly as possible.

Where does the money come from? That question is primary. The answers to that question and others would come from a wide conversation, such as this online one, that emphasizes the want of change and the intent to follow-through.

I hope that there will be a lot of discussion on this forum and elsewhere about the critical life problems and solutions for Ontario Works recipients and administrators. I trust that management and administrators will use the information they collect to genuinely prepare a better approach, with a lot of new ideas, to really help Ontario Works recipients to enjoy a better life, and to contribute to a stronger community.

Tags: Ontario Works, OW, Poverty, Special Diet, welfare