Some Lessons I have Learned over the past Decade

 

By Kendall Worth!

Long-term readers of my BLOG know that I use my journalism as a vehicle to advocate for a range of issues, with a focus on identifying possible solutions to the challenges faced by Nova Scotians living in poverty. In these BLOGs I focus primarily on the struggles of people who try to eke out a basic existence while living on Income Assistance (IA).  

In my writing, I have tried to be open about the fact that I have lived with several disabilities since I was a child. I have also shared that I continue to live with these disabilities to the current day, and how these “invisible disabilities” have made my life difficult in different ways.

I first shared this reality with readers in this article from ten years back, which was focused on my struggles at the time to gain meaningful work experience. Over the past decade, I have come to understand that while some of these disabilities may be considered “learning” disabilities, they have not blocked me from learning from life experiences.

So now, as I look back at my own personal experiences, relationships and observations, I can identify a series of lessons learned, which I will share in this BLOG.

There is one important set of lessons related directly to living on Income Assistance. This is particularly true for people who for one reason or another remain on IA for extended periods of time. These lessons relate to what works and what doesn’t work when engaging with the IA system. Those lessons are quite different from the lessons learned in the form of basic survival skills for getting by day-to-day on IA benefits. And there are also lessons to be learned about coping with the social stigma that comes from those who are judgemental of people living on IA.

There is a quite separate set of lessons related to my work as an advocate and activist for people in my community.  In this part of my life, both as a journalist and organizer, I have come to appreciate that while individuals should always speak up in defense of their own needs and interests, the fact is that the only way to effectively address larger social and policy issues is to organize into groups and act collectively.

Many of the lessons I learned on this topic relate to my efforts to mobilize people through the Benefits Response Action Group (BRAG), which operated as a sort of union of IA recipients from 2013 to 2020. I have written extensively about the BRAG experience, both in this BLOG  and in articles in the Nova Scotia Advocate.

The eventual closing of BRAG (during the pandemic) taught me the following two lessons:

·       Firstly, it is critically important for any community to ensure that it is that community’s own First Voices that must be at the centre of any organizing and advocacy efforts such as BRAG;

·       Secondly, it is possible that these First Voices are simply not enough – not loud enough, not unified enough, not skilled or resourced enough  - to bring about the necessary changes. In such cases, the community needs to figure out how best to bring friends, allies and supporters into the cause. Which in turn brings the challenge of how best to ensure that the allies are supportive of – and do not drown out - the First Voices. 

With regards to my community, there is another factor that greatly complicates the work of mobilization and advocacy. This is the prevalence of mental health issues within our community. As I wrote in a 2023 BLOG, we need a strong core group of First Voices to move our agenda forward. But many people – who could speak compellingly about issues of poverty, social isolation and mental health, often choose not to come forward.

Some times, the barrier to participating is externally driven, - fear of stigmatization in the larger community is a major silencer of people on IA, as I have written about extensively.  In other cases, there is simply no incentive for people to attend meetings and speak up on the issues they are facing. I have discussed in an earlier BLOG whether we need to establish a fund from which we can provide incentives or an honorarium to people to attend meetings and speak out.  

In the meantime, we must resist the temptation to overly depend on the voices of allies and supporters from the financially better off community. In fact my 2023 BLOG cited above was actually an appeal for support in the form of a letter to our friends and allies. But while we need to bring these voices to the table, they should never displace the First Voices from our own community. Our better-off friends simply do not have the first hand experience of living in poverty that is necessary for credibility. And sometimes, to be frank, they do not agree with our own First Voices in terms of issues and solutions.

For me, I am trying to figure out what these different lessons mean for the current focus of my advocacy efforts: the establishment of a social prescription organization (SPO) - or at least “program” -  in HRM, to serve and support our community in fighting social isolation and building community. I have written extensively about both the destructive power of social isolation (here) as well as the need for an SPO style response (here). But to date, there has been limited progress and even occasional pushback.

Some of the issues faced include:

·       Addressing social isolation (the core mandate of an SPO) is not seen by many - including policy makers, some allies and even some members of our own community - as a priority problem in addressing poverty and mental health issues. I think this is a BIG mistake.

·       There is a sense amongst some that any social isolation issues faced in our community are already adequately addressed by drop-in centres and informal chats at soup kitchens and food banks. Again, I think this is a serious miscalculation.

·       And while I accept that an SPO agency will never replace a community-owned and managed organization like BRAG or a ‘People’s Union’, perhaps such an organization could emerge from the SPO’s efforts to build networks in the community.  

At this point, I am uncertain as to how best to proceed. I am not convinced that another small scale, short-term pilot project (in the style of the “Social Mitigation Project”, or “All Together Link” – see here) is the way to go. 

But until we can convince policy makers, funders and allies that a full frontal attack on social isolation in our community is not just possible but critical to addressing issues of poverty and mental health, - we will remain stuck in the current situation.

How to break through this log jam?

 

Kendall Worth is an award-winning anti-poverty activist who lives with disabilities and tries to make ends meet on income assistance.