Meet with Your MPP about ODSP and the Social Assistance Review
Posted on Fri, 2012-01-20 19:01
The ODSP Action Coalition's Public Awareness and Advocacy Committee has created a new Lobby Kit to help our members and supporters talk with their local Memeber of Provincial Parliament about the adequacy of social assistance rates, and other issues coming up in the Review of Social Assistance. You can access the Lobby Kit here:
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Employment Issues Discussed in 2nd Coalition Submission to Social Assistance Review
Posted on Thu, 2011-10-27 16:10
After meeting with the Commission for the Review of Social Assistance in early July, the ODSP Action Coalition decided we should do a follow-up submission on key issues and questions that emerged during our discussion with the Commiission. These issues include: whether people with disabilities should be divided into two groups--those who can work, and those who cannot work; whether there should be a requirement for people with disabilities to work, or to agree to treatment or rehabilitation in order to get income support; and whether the Accessibility for People with Disabilities Act is effective in removing barriers and making workplaces fully accommodating. We also stress in this submission that there are some good things in the ODSP Act, such as a definition of disability that recognizes that disability is not just a medical issue but includes factors like social barriers. Although the Coalition has always had lots of complaints about the way current program is
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Coalition Meets Commission Reviewing Social Assistance
Posted on Wed, 2011-07-13 15:18
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"TELLING OUR STORIES: Disability Should Not Equal Poverty" Report Released
Posted on Wed, 2010-07-07 14:25
236 people from all over Ontario who receive ODSP shared their struggles to survive with the ODSP Action Coalition. Their stories are summarized and quoted in a report released today, July 7 2010, at Toronto's Metro Hall.
The report is organized around the themes of
- Adequacy: Living with Dignity;
- Aspirations: Education & Employment
- Stress & Social Interaction
- Beyond the Basics
- Program "Service"
- Program Design
Running throughout the six categories are overlapping values and needs expressed: independence, choice, health and dignity.
The Coalition will be using this report, based on the lived experiences of the people who shared their stories, along with our Disability Declaration, in our advocacy work to push for an improved system of income and employment support for people with disabilities.
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"STUPID RULES" CREATE DIRE CONSEQUENCES
Posted on Thu, 2010-01-28 15:38
The Coalition had an opportunity to meet with members of the Social Assistance Review Advisory Council (SARAC) in late January, and to present them with a list of quick changes that could be made to some of the "stupid rules" in ODSP. This Council was recently appointed by the government to give advice on two things: some "quick fix" changes to counterproductive rules, and the mandate and scope of a more conprehensive social assistance review to be carried out later this year.
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ENDORSE THE DISABILITY DECLARATION
Posted on Tue, 2009-10-06 15:33
The ODSP Action Coalition is requesting individuals and groups to endorse our Disability Declaration. The Declaration sets out some of the rights that people with disabilities have according to the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, and then states what changes the Ontario government needs to make to ODSP to fulfill those rights. Although Canada has not yet ratified the Convention, the Coalition beleives it is important for people with disabilities and organizations that work with them to use it in articulating how and why their needs must be met.
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