All Together Link - Mitigating Social Isolation.

By Kendall Worth

 

Readers. I want to take a moment here to introduce Margaret Anne McHugh and the work she is doing, and has done for this project to mitigate social isolation. Margaret Anne is a labour & community activist, who is retired from paid work for a union, and whose employment background includes health and human services, government, education and the private sector. Margaret Anne is the coordinator of All Together Link, and, as a volunteer handles coordination including promotion, fundraising, and administration of the project. I sent her the questions and she answered in her own words. 

 

Check out all the details at: https://www.alltogetherlink.com/

What is All Together Link?

All Together Link is about making friends and connecting the community. At is most simple it is a program of activities, shared at no cost, taking place over a year in Halifax. We want to host ways to meet people and find friendships. We are here for those with no budget for recreation, who might be feeling lonely or isolated. Our series of activities, many in collaboration with other local groups and services, create an opportunity to explore new places in the city, discover something different, try a new skill or just relax with refreshments. All events are activity based,  but the purpose is socializing and making friends,  and you can participate in the activity as much or as little as you like.

We know that many people living in poverty have high anxiety, especially social anxiety, and we are asking them to trust us to manage a room full of strangers in a way that will keep them comfortable. We hope you will take a deep breath and come anyway! We will be waiting for you, and welcome everyone. 

It has been previously called Social Prescription/Prescribing, mitigating social isolation , and other things – but we needed a name for marketing purposes that was simple and direct. We want to link people; bring them together form a community: so we can be “all together!”

Although our September - December activities are in the bag – if there is something you would like to see – you can still make a suggestion for spring activities/events/locations (though they must be on peninsula due to to grant).

Why is it needed?

In Nova Scotia, the current Enhanced Household Rate through the employment support and income assistance (ESIA) Program is $950.00 a month. Some people are not getting even the standard household rate but less, because they are considered “boarders” or “employable”, or unhoused… After rent, bills and other living expenses are paid there is nothing left to spend on any recreational or social activity.

There is no help for people who are isolated – there is nowhere for professionals to refer them, at no cost, to assist with social connection, making friends, or finding ways to find people of similar values or interests.

During April 2023 surveys were distributed in Halifax and Dartmouth to places where people living in poverty, gather. Although the rate of return was small, most people checked all potential activities with the exception of walking/exercise/outdoor activities which had little interest expressed, and which Kendall wrote about recently. We also spoke to people gathered at food banks and soup kitchens… and to the service providers on peninsula esp in the North End. There was a lot of agreement that there were services providing food and trying to assist with accommodation but loneliness and social isolation, especially coming out from COVID restrictions, was at an all time high, and there was nothing on offer.

An overview of the literature on social isolation interventions concludes, in most cases, that groups work better than individual interventions, that a mix of ages is important (not concentrating on youth or seniors esp.) and including the target populations in the planning of groups and events. All those things are included in this project. One intervention suggests that education and working on “maladaptive thinking” (thoughts that work against you! And keep you from being your best self!) are also effective, which will be addressed by including workshops like “tools for social anxiety” by Dalhousie University Social Work clinic.

How did you get involved?

I have known Kendall Worth for almost a decade, (after meeting through the NSNDP, and now regularly editing his blog) and he regularly pointed out – both on his blog and at meetings -- the lack of available recreation, and opportunities to make friends, for people living in poverty - on Income Assistance, in particular.

He, sometimes with others, over the previous year, had been talking to organizations who all agreed about the need for such a program, (his vision has many more services attached – counselling, matching, peer support etc.) but they had no capacity to add a program or get it funded. I have a background in organizing and activism, both politically, to change policies and programs  and implementing new services, and know how to get something new started. I was working regularly with Kendall and eventually told him “I think I could set this up and get it funded. Shall we do it?“

So Kendall drove the whole idea, but I had capacity (mostly retired) and connections (people we could draft for help!) to implement it.

How did it come about?

As a writer and blogger about poverty issues for the last twenty years, Kendall Worth learned a lot about the needs of people living in poverty, in Nova Scotia. As a result he has become a well known advocate both politically and individually for those living in poverty, and especially those on Income Assistance. Years of writing about these issues in the now defunct Nova Scotia Advocate or his own blog, has taught him that the reality is that, “In a nutshell those in poverty live socially isolated lives, and often live alone, for reasons that are no fault of their own”.

Kendall and I began to speak in March.  By the end of April a small committee of volunteers was formed to provide advice and participate in implementation, and finding funding.  It consists of two first voice and two skilled community workers. It all began with Kendall Worth (first voice and idea founder),  Margaret Anne McHugh (Coordinator) Sandi Weagle (Treasurer), and Elizabeth Goodridge (first voice, organizing, and clear language writer). We began meeting very regularly, to plan the events and find funding,  and picked up the pace in July, after finding we were successful in receiving a Halifax Community Health Board grant. 

 

Thanks to Halifax Community Health Board for funding this project!!!

And, as you can see in the attached poster, and website, we have a program, which will continue regular activities through June of ‘24.

 

What are your hopes for the future of the project?

We are focused this first year 23/24 on 1)trying to make sure that we can attract people to attend activities; 2)that we are inclusive and welcoming to everyone, and 3)trying to evaluate and measure the impact, if any, of the program. Does this intervention work to mitigate social isolation? If only a half dozen people come to an activity, it makes it hard to find someone with whom you have commonalities, share values, or interests. We hope people can attend enough events to form a small community of mutual support. That’s our immediate goal. In the future we hope to expand to Dartmouth and Spryfield. We have a vision of a larger organization that can offer individualized help and support, in finding recreation, maybe matching “friends”, offering more workshops… etc. but promotion, and success this year, are first! If the intervention is unsuccessful – if people do not come - its back to the drawing board!

 

Will it contribute to solving poverty, generally?

No – not directly, but, maybe in time. Part of the vision for why communities are more effective when organized, is in our Mission Statement: “Our mission is to help create a healthy, caring community, where everyone thrives. Specifically, our immediate goal, is to help people find friends and community. The goal is to increase people’s reliance on each other, and create personal associations of mutual support. We want to help create a healthy, resilient community, so people living in poverty, can more effectively make demands for improvement in income and housing etc. both individually, and collectively.”