By Kendall Worth!
Recently, I have been talking about the benefits of a social prescription program for Halifax. First I have three specific stories with a relationship to social prescriptions as a potential solution. Then, I report on what people, themselves living in poverty, would like to see in such a program. I have focused on the making friends aspect because that is what I hear from people that they are looking for – so many are socially isolated, and looking for some way to increase their socializing without having to spend money.
If one existed, how would the existence of Social Prescription Program benefit some?
3 Examples:
Assuming one effect of the program is that people will make some friends, the person I covered in this story October 14, 2022 would potentially have a community of friends who could come to visit her at her apartment while she was recovering from surgery, or during her time in hospital. She would potentially have more friends for support. Currently, she is retired and lives life more socially isolated.
In my Story of December 05, 2022, I indicated that through the existence of a Social Prescription Program, she can meet people and hopefully develop a circle of friends who can help her out, when she needs it.
The third story is that of Zenda from October 13th this year. I was talking to Zenda recently, and she still lives her socially isolated life, and she still struggles to find herself a community of friends to hang out and spend time with. Zenda suggested that through a Social Prescription program something could be organized to get people together, who are going to be alone at Christmas. Zenda told me again this year for the 6th year in a row is going to be by-herself for Christmas.
When you come to think about solutions to the above situations things like Friday night events/gatherings and group walks, where people could make friends, are two good examples of solutions.
So for this current article, I initiated conversations with people in my community, who live in poverty, and asked them: What would like to see as part of a Social Prescription organization/Program if one was to come to Halifax?
I have gotten a wide range of answers on this one.
When you start to write a proposal/business plan you begin by asking anyone and everyone from business advisors, through to People who are already Entrepreneurs, Etc What makes writing a plan for a Social Prescription Organization/program coming to Halifax so special, is that it provides an opportunity to get input and ideas directly from the population of people who use food banks and soup kitchens, plus others who are part of the community of people living in poverty. The reality is in order to get funding for a non profit organization started first you have to have a written business plan. With this being said the first thing I heard is:
People living in poverty, I have spoken to, say they want to see focus groups. In this Focus groups they would be asked the question “what other types of getting out and Socializing with people are you interested in, besides talking to the people you see when standing in line at the Food-Bank and taking to people at the Soup-kitchen, especially if there was a way to avoid or afford registration fees to be part of groups?
People tell me they see social prescriptions as an opportunity to move away from depending on the Soup-Kitchens and Drop-ins for people living in poverty, and are often the only way of socializing. Two specific social interests came up in these conversations. People want to go see bands play and attend open mic nights. During these conversations the possibility of paying a cover charge, at a bar, and the need to purchase a drink and/or food is what worries people, and why they do not currently attend. In these conversations consuming alcohol came up as another concern. In reality, in addition to alcohol not being cheap, people in the community also have reasons for avoiding alcohol from being in recovery to not allowed with their medications. However, according to the person who I am working on this proposal with there are ways that people can engage into this type of social activity and not drink alcohol. This Global News Report shows one real neat example.
Then one actual person, living the poverty experience recently brought to my attention that in some other jurisdictions “Sober Bars” are popping up. Here is something interesting that talks about Sober Bars.
And in this article I point out why the Downtown Bar Scene is not always the best solution for getting out and socializing with people. In the same article, I point out there is a such thing as going to a bar and not drinking alcohol. So with all these considerations, and with creative thinking, I believe there is nothing to worry about.
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| from: https://treatmentmagazine.com/sober-bars-are-breaking-through/ |
Some other comments:
We see Social Prescriptions as an opportunity for us to stop having to check ourselves into the QEII emerge only because we need human contact at the time of showing up. This article and this one (same as shared in para above) points out why people in poverty sometimes resort to doing to this.
People living in poverty are actually suggesting that maybe the Social Prescription Organization could actually run the 24/7 centre I am suggesting in these articles, and own and operate the Sober Bar talked about above.
The reality is (and this is one of the reasons as to why we are not ready to go public yet about what the Business/organization is going to look like and what we will be offering as part of Halifax Social Prescriptions) but the reality is what Social Activities we are going to be able to provide will depend what type of funding we can access. Running Drop-in Centers and providing meals can be very expensive. Part of researching this Business/Organization idea is finding out where places like Souls Harbour, Hope Cottage, Brunswick Street Mission, Dartmouth North Grove, and Feeding Others of Dartmouth get their funding from to provide meals.
One conversation I had included talking them about the beautiful walking trails we have right here in HRM. They actually said they would be open to wanting to get groups together to do group walks through those beautiful walking trails. But one issue/concern that came up is if those walks are planned for 12 noon or 5pm on any given day, users of Souls Harbour or Hope Cottage are not going to pull themselves away from getting their meals at those times, unless they know they are going to get their meal by attending the walk. Some of these programs are already available through other agencies… but many welfare recipients are scared they will experience stigma from the better off folks. The idea of having a free BBQ in a park in the Spring or Summer months is fun but, can we get funding and where? Needs research.
The other thing those living in poverty are telling me is:
As part of a Social Prescription organization they want to see a non-professional crisis/life line offered. They want to make one-on-one friendships when needed. With this month being the month of December, you can call this month a reason why this is needed. They want to access a friend to take as a guest to Christmas parties/gatherings with them. But the reasons are not limited to that. Also with a life-line they can also access someone to talk to when they need someone to talk to when there are no events planned through the organization.
So anyway those are all good ideas for a Social Prescription organization. The question is, what can we make reality?
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