Summary of community discussions

The five areas that presented themselves in the community discussions that seem the most promising for action for the Social Justice Group over 2013 and 2014 are as follows:

1. Continuing to provide information about poverty in Centre Wellington
2. Bringing services together and enhancing them
3. More affordable housing
4. Transportation
5. Organizing financing for action

1. Continuing to provide information about poverty in Centre Wellington
One of the most common themes in our community discussion was surprise and disappointment at the existence and extent of poverty in Centre Wellington: poverty and the vulnerability of those at risk of falling into poverty are increasing, and working families, senior citizens and people with disabilities are among those living in poverty or at risk of falling into poverty.

While we consider that our community discussions were effective in providing basic information to about 250 people (and the people they know), we think there is a need to continue to provide information about poverty in our community. We also think that the stories of people living in poverty are particularly powerful because they make the extent of poverty and the difficulties that flow from poverty real. We also believe that our community discussions empowered some community members living in poverty to speak out.

2. Bringing together services and increasing their reach and purpose
The sense from our community discussions was that, despite a wide range of services, the services are not meeting all the needs of people who are living in poverty or at the margins. We also heard concerns in our community discussions that the services and supports that are available are not well coordinated, and this may prevent needs from being met fully or at least met better. Many people in the community discussions felt that consolidating the space in which services and supports are provided would be a good idea, and there was also a good deal of commentary that cheaper alternatives for space, such as would result from outright purchase of a building to bring the services together, would be an desirable goal for our community.

In the community discussions, we also heard of a few opportunities for new services and supports in our community that hold significant promise for helping those who are living in poverty or at the margins, including the following:

• We heard from people living in poverty that one support they would like is linking with mentors who could help them gain a foothold out of poverty, such as the Circles program, supported by the Public Health Unit and the County, based on a model in Lambton County (www.lambtoncircles.com).
• We heard about Elora Community Share (http://www.sharingelora.ca/elora-community-share.html) that provides an online space for sharing ideas and things.
• Finally, we also heard about the desire of the community to create even more spaces where poor and rich could mix together, such as a café or meeting place attached to or in a new space for a variety of the services. Such spaces might also provide the opportunity for generating revenue for poverty reduction purposes, and for creating employment or training opportunities.

3. More affordable housing
We heard from various participants in the community discussions that there is a lack of affordable housing in our community, and that the high cost of existing housing can mean individuals and families don’t have enough money in their monthly budget to buy enough nutritious food or participate in community and school activities. We also heard that if a family is managing nicely with mortgage payments but then suffers a shock – for example, illness or job loss – the whole viability of their housing can be compromised.

There are a variety of opportunities for the Social Justice Group to get involved in the development of affordable housing, including converting houses currently for sale into multi-resident accommodation at the inexpensive end of the housing price continuum; helping people with extra space in their homes link with people who need housing; co-developing affordable housing on County-owned land in Fergus; seeking to dedicate part of the Landmark development in Elora for affordable housing; and, investigating whether the current Groves Hospital building and site could be used for affordable housing when the new hospital is built in Aboyne.

4. Transportation
One topic that was raised frequently in our community discussions was the problem of transportation.

Because transportation is so vital to social, shopping, and work opportunities – and because a publicly-available transportation service would enable people from different parts of our community to mix and meet – this appears to be an area that the Social Justice Group should investigate further. See Community Bus Service and Information and resources on Transportation.

5. Financing our activities
So far in our activities, we have had low costs, and have been supported by a grant from the Hands Across Niagara program of the Anglican Diocese of Niagara. We also received about $500 in donations from various groups that hosted our community discussions in the fall of 2012. These funds are available for our work. However, as we move to action, particularly if we move forward in the fields of housing, bringing services together, or transportation, we will need financing of a different magnitude.

There is a wide variety of grants and loans that may be available from a variety of public and private sources. These range from micro-grants of $500 to loans of $375,000 to develop plans for developing housing. In addition, the idea of “community bonds” has been discussed in small groups. Essentially, members of the community invest in the bonds, which are eligible for holding in Registered Retirement Savings Plans, saving the investors income tax. Thus, they are attractive financially, and can be used by community members as a way of investing in their own community. (For more information, see www.communitybonds.ca).