Sometimes the Solution is Found in Creative Combinations

 

By Kendall Worth

 My regular readers will know that over the past few years, I have been an active advocate for three major causes that I think would make a SIGNIFICANT improvement in the lives of vulnerable people in my community.  

Firstly, I have written extensively about the need for a system of Basic Guaranteed Income that will enable people in my community to live an adequate life, - when compared to the current rates and restrictions of the different Employment Support and Income Assistance (ESIA) programs in Nova Scotia. I have written frequently about the need for policy reform in this regard. As I wrote recently, the current income assistance rate in Nova Scotia is $1,005 a month, - only a quarter of what is considered a “living wage”.  And some recipients do not even receive that full amount.

Secondly, I have been advocating for the creation of a Social Prescribing Organization that would address not only physical health and economic well-being in my community, but SOCIAL factors that impact well-being, such as loneliness and isolation, and the need for personal growth, creativity and community connection. In multiple BLOGS, I have explored how an SPO could help address a range of issues that greatly complicate the lives of vulnerable people, everything from attending medical appointments to celebrating holidays and protecting against public harassment.

Thirdly, I have been proposing major reform of NS’s Career Seek program to ensure it expands outreach and deepens impact within the marginalised community. In multiple BLOGs, I have laid out proposals for overhauling this important program so that it is both more accessible and more effective for those in my community that aspire to entering the workplace.

A Conversation of First Voices:

As always, I have been engaging this Fall in conversations with members of my community to learn more about their situations and to hear their ideas about future directions. As is my usual practice, I will refer to these informants using “fake names” to protect their privacy.  But all of them, - Brian, Jay, and Simon are people with whom I have talked before and whose stories I have shared in this BLOG.  Some quick personal highlights:

·        Brian has held full-time jobs in the past, and hopes some day to return to the workforce. However, he has been struggling with mental health issues, most notably depression which makes that a challenge. Brian found the transition from waged worker to unemployment insurance to income assistance a very stressful process, which has only worsened his struggles.

·        Jay is in his mid 30s and also used to be employed. However, he too struggled with mental health issues, which resulted in workplace bullying. He is now living on income assistance and continues to struggle from depression, anxiety and OCD.

·        Simon also held a full-time job despite living with invisible disabilities. He also felt bullied in the work place and is now on income assistance with a poorer quality of life and greater mental health issues.

Our latest conversation started with some of my personal reflections on my own life and challenges that I have written about here, here and here. In these articles I recounted my personal experiences of living with Impulse Control Disorder and other learning disabilities and how these have combined to make living my own life a big challenge.  

Central to all of these personal stories is our various experiences of securing and maintaining meaningful, full-time employment. The reality of most people in my community is one of long-term unemployment. The direct result is obvious, - lack of income and a life of poverty.

However, there are also many additional “side effects” of long term unemployment, including serious social, psychological and health impacts that were elaborated in this useful article. These factors can combine to make it VERY difficult for IA recipients to secure a job and get off of IA, as I wrote about here, almost 10 years ago.

Long term unemployment is often accompanied by a long, slow process of declining self-confidence and self-worth.  When this was brought up in our group conversation, I was reminded of past struggles to try to get a member based advocacy organization started in HRM. BRAG – the Benefits Response Action Group was the name of the organization, and for years we worked to mobilize income assistance recipients into a type of union that would represent OUR interests to government, business and the public at large. (I have written extensively about the BRAG experience in previous BLOGs as well as articles in the Nova Scotia Advocate).

But the barrier we faced was that overwhelmingly, individuals on Income Assistance were reluctant to be openly and publicly visible as an IA recipient. This was not because they were afraid of hostility from government case workers or professionals, - or concerned about the closing of doors into employment opportunities.

What IA recipents feared most was the social stigma they would face from the people closest to them, -  family, friends and social networks. Their lack of personal confidence and deep sense of social vulnerability made it impossible for them to step forward and become active members, supporters and leaders of an organization, the whole purpose of which was simply to amplify their voices and concerns in the public square.  In effect, our community is intimidated by the very real phenomenon of poor bashing, - something I have written about here.

It seems that members of the public, even friends and family members of IA recipients, do not appreciate the psychological damage that results from stigmatizing those who “live on welfare”.

The resulting sense of failure and despair, wrapped in feelings of shame and humiliation only serve to further isolate people. Of course, what they really need is confidence building and courage to go out in the world to job hunt.

Trying to Break Through:

The breakthrough to launching an active job search seems to be particularly difficult for First Voices who have held full time jobs in the past. The transformation of their lives since those days has been devastating for many:

•         they now have a much diminished sense of self-worth;
•         they have been bruised if not traumatised by relentless stigmatizing and bullying;
•         they now feel more comfortable in social isolation, cut off from others; and
•         launching into a job search process can raise stress and anxiety which may well have significant implications for their health, both physical and mental health.

 Putting Together the Pieces:

In my recent conversations with these First Voices, it started to become apparent to me that perhaps I should not be looking at different programs (such as the “Big Three” of Basic Income, Career Seek and Social Prescription) one-by-one.  Perhaps it would be more helpful to view them as integrated and re-inforcing components of a comprehensive and truly transformative anti-poverty strategy.  

Clearly, the case for a guarantee basic income is fundamental.  There is no question that the current rates of IA and other benefits are wholly inadequate to lift Nova Scotians out of poverty: they are simply enough to keep people alive and struggling on the brink.  A basic income program would hopefully increase benefit rates while streamlining bureaucratic systems, simplifying procedures, broadening access and cutting administrative costs.   

Similarly, we have discussed before the need to make an employment focused program like Career Seek much more widely accessible to ALL IA recipients who aspire to return to the workforce. The governing rules and regulations need to be revisited and significantly revised to ensure that more more Nova Scotians can secure the training and education they need to secure employment. And hopefully, the program can “raise the bar” to include more meaningful employment opportunities, beyond the usual array of dead end job offers in the fast food sector.      

And foundational to both is the Social Prescription approach, which will engage the individual in the full sense of their personal capacities and social networks. It will take into account issues of mental health and disabilities, address issues of social stigma and personal self-confidence, building peer-based networks of support.

In Conclusion: 

Let me close this BLOG post by simply acknowledging that not all IA recipients are both willing and able to secure and maintain jobs that will help lift them out of poverty and reduce their dependence upon the public purse. However, I do believe that the introduction of a universal basic income program, linked to a reformed version of the Career Seek program, and delivered through a social prescription approach can indeed make a BIG difference in the lives of many of our community members.

We will not solve these problems with minor tweaks and repairs of the current system: it is time for us to THINK BIG! 

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