By Kendall Worth
First, I want to give my readers a bit of background about my current BLOG post. As my regular readers know, I advocate for a large number of people in Halifax who live in poverty. People in my community are saying that, to find solutions to the problems they face, it will require collaboration between organizations and businesses that care about people living in poverty.
In the past, I have written about a Sober Bar idea as well as about a project that was once up and running called All Together Link.
I want to also remind readers of a BLOG post I wrote on January 26th, 2016, back when I was being published in the Halifax Media COOP. I am taking a moment to remember this article because it is an example of what can be accomplished.
Anyway, people in my community are asking one very BIG question: Would people, like those who volunteer at soup kitchens, food banks, and other organizations, like to see a reduction of people using their services?
Some people tell me that they believe this could happen if organizations would start putting their heads together to come up with new ideas.
When I say we need to find solutions to the complex issues people in poverty are facing, I mean solutions that will allow us to live socially connected lives, because isolation plays a part in mental health suffering for people living in poverty.
One specific lesson I learned from my past involvement with the Benefits Reform Action Group is that, if you want the actual people who suffer living on Income Assistance to get involved, it is good to offer incentives for them to do so. Examples of these incentives includes gift cards, food at meetings, or an honorarium.
Before I get into the nitty gritty, I want to share this neat article I found when I searched the term “collaborating” on Google. It is about how, when businesses and organizations in the better-off community collaborate, it benefits them. I believe people living in poverty, and organizations who try to help them, can learn a few lessons from this article.
Here is some background information on my “Sober Bar” idea, and here is some information about All Together Link, which started on September 9th, 2023 and ended on June 15th, 2024. We started off by calling it as we saw it with the Mitigating Social Isolation Project.
What I am advocating for is a Social Prescription Organization to get started right here in Halifax. What is social prescribing?
“Social Prescribing is involving healthcare in the determinants of health. A professional writes the prescription and sends you directly to an agency or to a navigator who finds what you need. We need a group who will work on the “social part”, after the prescription is written. So I am using “social prescribing” as short hand for the whole system. Those who prescribe, and the implementation of programs that are needed to fulfill prescriptions”
Recently, some people suggested that maybe there is a way that both ideas (the Sober Bar and the All Together Link) could continue running for another year or longer. This would be an example of what collaborating is all about!
But why bring ideas together? Well, both ideas are examples of social prescription organizations, so why not combine them? This would be a way to help people combat the impacts of isolation on their mental health. You can read more about the importance of social prescription organizations here.
Social prescribing organizations do more than just provide an opportunity for socialising with others. The sober bar idea and the All Together Link project would provide safe and affordable ways for people living in poverty to socialize, and would also give people a chance to come up with other ideas to socialize, rather than just chatting with people in lines at their food banks or people they meet at soup kitchens. It would also help reduce use of food banks and soup kitchens, and would feel more empowering.
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| I chose this photo once again to prove my points because this photo shows an example of what people can achieve after they improve socially. Despite the yachts in the background, this photo also represents a solution for reduction of anxiety. |
As we all know, this idea of a Sober Bar is a business, not a charity or a non-profit organization. A business has to make money. Maybe the sober bar could rent out space to local businesses and non-for-profit organizations for things like business meetings. The profits from the rentals could go towards keeping the sober bar running. This would help keep prices affordable for people living in poverty, so that they can enjoy and support the sober bar. This is an example of collaborating.
Stay tuned for more BLOG posts explaining how this idea I am proposing can work!
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