...At least that is how my community is feeling these days!
By Kendall Worth!
I am writing this Current BLOG post on August 3rd 2023 and so you may find it difficult to believe that I am actually talking about Christmas, while we are still in the Middle of Summer. Christmas is still 5 months away, however Income Assistance recipients and some homeless people I spoke to recently are all feeling strongly that now is the time that the community of People living in poverty (whether your income comes from ESIA, CPP disability, senior’s GIS, or even the working poor) to start discussions to ensure that No One is going to be left out from Celebrating Christmas 2023. And we meed to remember to include the homeless too!
This year COVID has nothing to do with starting these preparations early. The following statements point out reasons, suggested to me, bout why these discussions need to start early:
The $950.00, or, for some receiving the $609.00 rate from Community Services ESIA program, are going to experience a lot of stress over the coming months even thinking about Christmas.
We also have to remember that those on CPP Disability and other forms of Government assistance are not a lot better off.
As this article points out https://worthmatters.blogspot.com/2023/05/heartbreaking-news-i-learned-during.html there are even members of the working poor whose Income is only $200 to $400 more then if they were on Income Assistance, here in Nova Scotia.
Inflation continues to rise as does the homeless population. Starting this coming Christmas with the Carbon tax in effect as of July 1st., https://worthmatters.blogspot.com/2023/07/carbon-tax-in-nova-scotia-effects-and.html this is going to be no help whats-so-ever for those living in poverty whose plans may include out of town travel at Christmas time. After all this move has raised the cost of Transportation Options. Sources have told me that with this Carbon Tax the Cost of taking Buses and Shuttles have increased with the Introduction of this tax. Even though
Although the Carbon Tax rebates will help a little as most Income Assistance recipients do not drive so so not buy gasoline, and, although some will have some increased heating costs for those in which heating oil is not included in their rent, $124 4 x a year, is just a drop in the bucket of need by people with so little to live on.
With such a huge homeless population we have to think -- how are the homeless going to celebrate Christmas without having a fixed address to celebrate Christmas.
Unless something changes within the coming months, those of us who may qualify for the Canadian Disability Benefit will not start receiving it until later in 2024.
One major difference this Christmas is that there will be no COVID restrictions. Most restrictions seemed to have disappeared by Christmas 2022, however, because of higher incidence of COVID at that time, some better off families decided and chose on their own to not celebrate Christmas 2022 with others. They made this decision even though they did not have to follow the same public health guidelines as those in place in 2020 and 2021. People, who I advocate for, know COVID will not be an excuse this Christmas and know that the better off population will be “back to normal.
Not COVID but, sadly, other excuses will be found to ignore people at Christmas, and that will mean that people will still experience loneliness and isolation in 2023.
To help illustrate reasons why loneliness and isolation are still going to be excuses at Christmas time in 2023 I am going to take a minute to go go back to this post (which links to others) https://worthmatters.blogspot.com/2022/12/ging-jangling-around-with-ideas.html that also illustrate reasons why loneliness and isolation are still an issue for Christmas 2023. Those blog posts also suggest solutions to the circumstances that encourage income assistance recipients into social isolation. Also in the post, I brought up the Feed Nova Scotia Christmas Support Program. However, the problem is all they provide is a food box you pick up somewhere, or a chef prepared meal to be delivered to your door. Better then nothing, but does nothing about social isolation at Christmas.
So people living in poverty are asking, with increased inflation, what are places like Souls Harbour, Hope Cottage etc planning to do this year this year to organize for Christmas? These organizations should start early this year, is what my community is suggesting. We need to ensure that everyone who wants to, or celebrates, can be included in celebrating Christmas 2023. Looking back at this post https://worthmatters.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-best-dream-for-those-living-in.html let’s suppose someone could just win the Lottery, (And Sources tells that within the past few weeks it was once 70 million Dollars). One idea as talked about in that post, if anyone who understands the Community of People living in poverty, this type of money could just fund the solutions. However, of course No person living in poverty, or anyone who will help is likely to win a jackpot before Christmas 2023. So lets forget about that idea.
Recently, I talked to people about forming a committee who could come together and collaborate with places like Souls Harbour, etc to focus on coming up with plans and solutions to make sure that no-one is going to be left out, if they want to celebrate Christmas 2023. Also, lets organize, as many poor as possible to make sure that no one who wants company is alone at Christmas time.
I talked about Christmas back in my days of writing for the Nova Scotia Advocate. Even though this article https://nsadvocate.org/2018/12/21/kendall-worth-open-letter-to-santa/ was posted back in December 21st 2018, it is still relevant today. As matter of fact if you were to look at the Christmas wish included with this 2018 article you could say these days there are new items that can be added to wish list. However this December 12th 2018 article https://nsadvocate.org/2018/12/12/kendall-worth-home-for-christmas/ points out, that if people had the right supports in life and miracles can happen. By getting the special committee, suggested in the above paragraph going, lets make miracles happen for Christmas 2023. Maybe may a project like this can perform a miracle if we put our minds to it and think creatively.
Another question that came up recently is can we, with the right support for a Christmas Project make the rest of December an easier month for eople living in poverty? This December 4th 2018 article https://nsadvocate.org/2018/12/04/kendall-worth-how-income-assistance-recipients-stumble-through-the-month-of-december/ points out why this question came up? This article is relevant each and every year during the month of December for those living in poverty. Lets Find ways to brighten up the month of December -- but THAT work needs to start now.
Finally, here is a heart breaking story of one welfare recipient https://nsadvocate.org/2019/12/20/kendall-worth-no-one-to-share-taco-shells-with-a-christmas-story/ who lives year after year without a choice to be social and spending Christmas alone. I was in-touch with her recently and that is the case at present.
So lets start the work now on finding solutions!If you would be interested in joining such a committee use the form on the right to contact me!
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