By bevdunlay, on March 29th, 2012  Freezing Social Assistance Rates for People with Disabilities
Will Result in Increased Hardship
Community Living Ontario was alarmed to learn that the Provincial Budget brought down by the government yesterday will freeze the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) Income Supports at their current level.
Current ODSP benefit amounts provide for an income that is approximately 40% below the poverty line.
While the government has made investments in ODSP benefits each year since 2004 to keep pace with cost of living increases, benefits prior to 2004 had been frozen for 11 years. As a result, ODSP benefits today remain more than 18% below what they were in 1993 when compared to inflation.
“This is not the time for government to abandon its practice of annual cost of living adjustments to ODSP,” says Deborah Rollier, President of Community Living Ontario. “When the economy is bad, that is exactly the time that investments must be made in social assistance. This can only cause hardship for those who rely on these benefits.”
The Government of Ontario has established a Social Assistance Review Committee to undertake a comprehensive review of the current system. Community Living Ontario has provided its views on the reform that is needed to ensure that ODSP provides an adequate level of support to those who need it. The government’s decision to freeze benefits now, just months before the outcome of that review is known makes little sense. Community Living Ontario calls on the government to reverse this decision and provide an appropriate increase to ODSP benefits. We must ensure that benefits are not further eroded by the effects of inflation while the Social Assistance Review Commission continues its efforts to determine the best ways to enhance and secure the program to meet people’s needs in the future.
Community Living Ontario – Tel. 416-447-4348; web: www.communitylivingontario.ca
Contact – Gordon Kyle, Director of Social Policy and Government Relations Gordon@communitylivingontario.ca
Click on Link for a PDF of the News Release; Media Release March 28 2012
By bevdunlay, on July 5th, 2011  By: Emily Mountney
The Trentonian , Thursday June 30, 2011
A local project has been given a financial boost by the provincial government.
Six organizations – Community Living Quinte West, Pathways to Independence, Community Vision & Networking, Community Living Campbellford/Brighton, Community Living Belleville and Area and the Quinte West YMCA – received $61,643 Monday morning.
“We received some funding two years ago for the project and this is a continuation of that funding,” said Ron Riddell, general manager of the YMCA.
They money will go toward the HELMS project — Health, Energy, Learning and Motivation through Sports — aims to improve the quality of life for disabled people. The six organizations, which work together to provide the program, have also teamed up with Queen’s University in Kingston. “The money will be partially used for access to the YMCA. Other activities they do can include horseback riding, sailing and skiing,” said Riddell.
Riddell said the program is primarily for those with intellectual disabilities, but some participants have physical disabilities as well. The money will also be used to develop resource materials such as videos to show what the HELMS project offers.
Some of the funding will also be used by Queen’s to conduct research on the effect of physical activity and sports on the mental and physical health and social integration of local people with intellectual disabilities.
”People with intellectual disabilities will be able to lead healthier and better lives because of the Healthy Community Funding we are receiving,” said Starr Olson, Community Living Quinte West executive director. “This funding means a great deal to many, many people who are sometimes forgotten.” The funding is part of the provincial government’s Healthy Communities Fund.
“Folks with disabilities play a huge role in our society,” said Northumberland-Quinte West MPP Lou Rinaldi. “They should be able to enjoy the same benefits as all of us.”
By bevdunlay, on June 10th, 2011
The Independent
By: John Campbell
CAMPBELLFORD – For the third year in a row, students at Kent Public School lent a hand with Community Living Campbellford/Brighton’s Appetite for Awareness last week.
Patrick Muldoon’s Grade 4/5 class helped assemble 330 brown bag lunches June 1 for delivery to employees of businesses in Campbellford, Brighton and Warkworth. The purpose was twofold: to raise awareness of what Community Living does, among the students as well as the adults who purchased lunches for $6 apiece, and to raise money for the agency’s outcome sponsorship fund.
Ninety-five per cent of the food was donated by businesses in the three communities.
The fund makes money available to people the agency supports to “subsidize things they wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford,” said Dawn Lee, manager of quality enhancement and community development. “Sometimes it’s medical equipment, sometimes it’s a trip of a lifetime,” she said, which could include the cost of a staff member accompanying the person with an intellectual disability.
“In the last three years, we’ve been able to raise close to $15,000, mostly through staff initiatives,” she said. Anywhere from 20 to 30 requests for financial assistance are received each year.
Appetite for Awareness started out years ago solely as a Community Living fundraiser but recently it turned into a community initiative with the involvement of local students, Ms. Lee said.
The children talk about Community Living in class and then work with some of its clients and workers, and the experience improves their understanding of the agency’s function and the people it serves, Mr. Muldoon said.
“The whole point of the event is to raise awareness of Community Living and people with disabilities, and respectful treatment toward people,” Ms. Lee said. “We believe all kids belong together. We believe in an integrated school system. To have the kids involved is a priority … We find this entire community really inclusive.”
Two more fundraisers will take place this year. There’s a golf tournament July 9 at Pine Ridge, and tickets are currently being sold until Oct. 7 for a draw that features a $2,500 travel voucher as first prize; second prize is a $500 gift certificate for beef, and third prize is a $150 voucher for a spa. For more information or to purchase tickets, call 705-653-1821.
By bevdunlay, on July 5th, 2010 Heads up for Inclusion receives $5000 grant to pilot the Amigos in the Community project in Campbellford.
 John McNutt (Chair, Heads Up for Inclusion), Donna Desjardins (Supports and Services Manager, Community Living On Wednesday June 30th, 2010 at the Campbellford Seymour Community Foundation (CSCF) building in Campbellford, announcements were made of this year’s successful CSCF grant recipients. Heads Up for Inclusion was one of 16 organizations that received funds, and will be using the $5000.00 received to partner with Community Living Campbellford/Brighton to pilot the Amigos in the Community project in Campbellford. The project is a one-on–one youth based inclusion program pairing youth with and without intellectual disabilities who are no longer in high school. The youth pair communicate every week and meet twice a month doing something surrounding their shared interests, over time meaningful connections develop between the youth as well as their greater community.
The Amigos in the Community program was piloted in Peterborough this past year in partnership with Community Living Peterborough and continues to run successfully. The project will benefit many including youth with and without an intellectual disability who are actively participating in the program, and also the greater Campbellford community, where they will see first hand that a healthy and vibrant community contains many people with diverse abilities and disabilities where everyone is welcomed and appreciated for who they are.
By bevdunlay, on March 22nd, 2010 By Sue Dickens – Community Press
Campbellford – Northumberland-Quinte West MPP Lou Rinaldi announced Monday Community Living Campbellford/Brighton will receive $57,875.
Executive Director Nancy Brown said the money will be used where ever there is a need. One of the projects will be to build a ramp at one of the community residences.
“We support people with intellectual disabilities in their own home and that is what part of this money will do,” Brown said.
Community Living will use some of the money to purchase new doors and windows, to improve energy efficiency, as well as electronic smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors for community homes.
The funding is part of a $50 million investment over two years the province will spend to support nearly 1,000 capital projects in communities across Ontario. All are geared to improvements through expansions and renovations that will better the security, accessibility and energy efficiency at eligible social service facilities.
“The government has been a great advocate on our behalf,” Brown said.
Rinaldi said “Investing in infrastructure is a critical part of Ontario’s plan to restore growth, save and create jobs in the short term and build foundations for the future. The province is helping create about 450 jobs across the province by supporting infracstructure projects at local non-for-profit social service organizations such as this one.”
He acknowledged the hard work of the staff at Community Living Campbellford/Brighton: “There are certain things that people do that are not jobs. I look at what you do as something you do because you want to. What you do makes a real difference.”
The not-for-profit organization provides support and services to people with intellectual challenges.
By charlton, on March 15th, 2007 By Jeanne Beneteau, Northumberland News
NORTHUMBERLAND – A recent provincial funding announcement marks a significant investment in community agencies that provide essential social services to people in need across the riding, says the Northumberland – Quinte West MPP.
On March 12, on behalf of Minister of Community and Social Services Madeleine Meilleur, MPP Lou Rinaldi announced $577,075 in funding to be shared among social service providers County-wide. The money is part of the province’s $36.5 million dollar social services fund announced last fall as part of a greater $190 million economics package that will be used to build, renovate, maintain and repair ageing social service infrastructure across Ontario, said Mr. Rinaldi.
“This funding is going to social service agencies that provide community services to people with developmental, physical or other disabilities and to women and their children fleeing domestic violence,” he said.
Continue reading Social services cash helps residents in need
By charlton, on September 9th, 2004 $110 Million to Strengthen Community Services and Close Institutions
DATE: September 9, 2004
TORONTO – The Ontario government is strengthening supports for Ontarians with developmental disabilities by investing in community services and launching a major review of the province’s developmental services system to make sure it is fair, accessible and sustainable, Minister of Community and Social Services Sandra Pupatello announced today.
“It’s time to take a fresh look at our approach to assisting people with a developmental disability,” said Pupatello. “Our society has changed, families’ expectations have changed and we have to change, too. We need a comprehensive plan for the future – one that will lead us for the next 25 years and beyond.”
Continue reading Ontario Government Improving Support for Ontarians with Developmental Disabilities
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