By Kendall Worth!
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| Kendall with his YMCA Peace Medal which will be officially given on a ceremony at Nov 15th at Pier 21. |
I want to start off by providing some background on the title!
I am writing this post on November 9th, 2023. Over the past 3 to 4 weeks, support for, and readership of, this blog - WorthMatters.blogspot.com has really picked up steam. Over those 3 to 4 weeks is I have been contacted by more then 100 people who are interested being interviewed for my blog.
After considering what each story was about, I said no to some; others I have put off until January. Many of the people who have contacted me over these past weeks also have some misconceptions about what kind of stories I am interested in covering. So, I want to take a minute, to bring back a memory from my days of writing for the Halifax Media COOP. Even though that article is from 2015, it connects to all my later writing on issues the mainstream media does not cover and has no interest in. I continued to do so through my days of writing in the NS Advocate, (which is no longer publishing due to the passing of its publisher Robert Devet) and to today and my blog.
I have put a lot of thought into this current post and decided I have to communicate this information, now. In addition to being contacted by a number of people beyond my capacity, who wanted me to understand their story and what they wanted me to write about. Many of those suggested stories are unrelated to anything I would normally write about. In addition after learning that I had been nominated for a YMCA Peace Metal, my Editor (Margaret Anne McHugh) asked me why and how my BLOG writing is related to the criteria for this award, which is for health and well-being [ED: to be fair I did not know at the time that the award was in the category of “health and well-being” and thought it had to do with “peace” or conflict].
In a recent meeting I had with the YMCA of greater Halifax/Dartmouth, they explained that it was for my work on social isolation and social connection and well being. YOU can find links on the topic of social prescribing here and social prescriptions here. It is something I write and continue to write about a lot. These links speak volumes as to how my blog relates to the work of the YMCA. Worth Matters blog and the YMCA both promote a sense of belonging. Readers, please. do not get me wrong. I am writing this current post just to remind people of what my BLOG is about, and yes I am very honoured that the YMCA of Greater Halifax/Dartmouth took interest in my advocacy work
I want to be clear for those of you readers who think of me as an actual journalist of the following:
Some people assume I am a journalist. But “real” journalism double checks facts and gets all sides of the story. I am a advocate, a columnist, an opinion writer and/or an activist. I have a point of view and I share it. I am not a professional journalist, I did not go to journalism school and I write about the impact of poverty without giving anyone (esp the "powers that be") the time or right to give me excuses. I do my “Journalism” as an Advocate who has been interested over the past 20 years in bringing issues of poverty and mental health to the forefront. It is a problem that a large population of people here in Halifax suffers from: low minimum wage and Income Assistance rates, and high rents and food costs, and little in the way of community mental health supports.
These articles #1 and #2, from the media co-op, long ago, still proves the point I am trying to make in this current post. I have been interested in these issues for a very long time and my current BLOG exists to keep the torch, of my commitment to improve life in conditions of poverty, going.
Through my BLOG posts I advocate for:
Solutions for getting people out of poverty, social isolation, and improving mental health.
Improvement to the Mental Health System In Nova Scotia.
Change in the Nova Scotia Department of Community Services Employment Support and Income Assistance program.
Other solutions to solving Poverty and creating or improving programs.
Basic Income and increasing the Income Assistance Rates.
Ways for people who are affected by poverty, and the polices that keep them in this situation, to live a less socially isolated life.
Issues that the Persons with Disability Community suffer and to stick up for the rights of persons with disabilities, plus creating more opportunity for everyone affected.
I will end this post by letting the readers know that I am always open to new topics. However, things I have been asked to write about lately include topics that would get me writing on a whole new area/topics. I need to stick to my usual topics and stories about disability and income assistance, basic income etc. because no professional journalist covers these issues, especially not through hearing from first voice. The issues I write about are complex issues that many in Halifax/Dartmouth face. This Link outlines many areas where the policies, bureaucratic nonsense, and systemic problems of the Employment Support and Income Assistance program in Nova Scotia is mainly and strongly responsible for the suffering, the people I advocate for, face.
The new mitigating social isolation project (https://www.alltogetherlink.com/) is one I report on in these BLOG posts here. All together link is an example of how myself, along with a committee of 3 others, had to take creating a solution tfor social isolation into our own hands, since for years nothing was available through the formal mental health system in Nova Scotia, to assist their clients who are socially isolated to make friends. For more ideas I have been exploring and want to continue to promote throughout the course of my writing, see https://worthmatters.blogspot.com/2022/12/ging-jangling-around-with-ideas.html which explores ideas I had thought about, during all of time my BLOG has existed.
Thank all of you readers for your interest. I hope this BLOG post clears up any misconceptions new readers of my BLOG, may have.
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