By Kendall Worth!
Summer is supposed to be a fun and happy time. The sun is out (well, most days!), the days are longer and warmer, people are out and about in the community.
For people in my community, many view Summer as a season of relief from many of the stresses and anxieties that dominate other seasons. For these individuals, Summer provides a much appreciated break from the cold, isolation and darkness of their winter lives. For many, the Summer months feel like a mental health break, a time for mental health healing as they relax and perhaps get things done they could not attend to the rest of the year.
In HRM and other corners of the province, the Summer months also provide opportunities for getting out to many different community events and activities such as parades, concerts and and festivals. Many of these are low cost or even free, so every summer I do my best to promote these different events though my BLOG.
The Sad Reality
However the reality for many in our community is quite different. This Summer, a number of First Voices have shared with me that in fact, Summer has NOT been a time of relief and regeneration as we may have hoped. I have addressed some of these issues in earlier articles here and BLOG posts here.
In summary, some people observing all the Summer activities feel even more excluded than ever, lacking the personal confidence, social networks and financial resources to actually make the most of all the summer programs and activities.
Furthermore, a number of people in our community are employed through the school year in different roles in the school system. When they are laid off for the summer months, their Employment Insurance benefits are 100% clawed back from Income Assistance, leaving them no means by which to participate in many summer activities. I addressed this policy problem in a BLOG last Spring.
Here Comes Labour Day!
In Canada, the Labour Day holiday is an important seasonal turning point. Summer vacations are over, school is back in session, the weather is changing.
For those in my community who are seasonally employed through the school year, they are generally happy to be returning to work and earning a regular income. For others, they may regret the change of season, the move indoors of many community activities and the end of all the summer festivals and open air entertainment.
As major holidays go, Labour Day is relatively quiet and low-energy in our society. There are no big celebrations: local Labour Councils organize parades and picnics, but community participation is generally low. And we have no big tradition of family gatherings, parties and shared meals on Labour Day.
Connecting the Dots:
I have written before about how we should be connecting the dots between the widespread experience of social isolation in my community and the opportunities presented by special holidays. For years, I have been advocating for an organization to organize social events and activities that would reach out and engage the socially isolated on these festive days.
Of course, Labour Day itself does not really qualify as a festive occasion, so perhaps we can view this week instead as the starting date for a process of planning for a new approach for the bigger holidays to come – notably, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.
I have addressed the need for such planning in earlier BLOGs (see here), focused on the need for an organizing committee to begin work on encouraging more agencies (beyond simply Souls Harbour) to organize community meals and get-togethers at Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. It is so important to provide people in our community with spaces and events where they can gather in a non-judgemental setting to share a meal and celebrate the holidays with others.
For a variety of reasons, members in my community rarely receive invitations to spend time with friends and family during these holidays. Agency events cannot totally fill this void. Indeed, one First Voice told me that the traffic at Souls Harbour for holiday meals has been so heavy in recent years that they there is now little time or space for actual socializing. The pressure is on for people to sit down, eat and get out quickly – just to ensure that everyone actually gets fed. This is clearly not ideal.
The idea of
developing a long term solution to this challenge brings me back to the
importance of community voice and advocacy, which I attempt to do through this
BLOG and is discussed in this BLOG post.
As my regular
readers will know, the focus of my advocacy efforts has been on promoting the
idea of a social prescription organization as the best mechanism to address the
needs of my community to address social isolation. One component of such an
initiative could be a Safe
Socializing Hub which would provide an appropriate and welcoming
location for hosting a range of social gatherings, including holiday celebrations.
You can read more about this idea here.
With the right
supports, partnerships, and leadership, this organization would have the
capacity to plan and organize inclusive gatherings for Thanksgiving, Christmas,
Easter, and other important holidays.
The starting point for such an endeavour would need to be an organizing committee. And the vision for holiday gatherings should go beyond a meal and drop-in centre. It could include musical entertainment, games, movies and more
However without a dedicated committee advocating and organizing such events, nothing is going to happen.
So where
do we find the much-needed leadership for this task?
Kendall Worth is an award-winning anti-poverty activist who lives with disabilities and tries to make ends meet on income assistance
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