An important way to make change is to ensure people who are affected by public policy are informed and empowered to take action. ISAC’s community organizing work seeks to do that, by engaging with communities across the province, amplifying the voices of people with lived experience of poverty and discrimination, and supporting community events.
Much of this work is done in partnership with community legal clinics across the province and the Ontario Project for Inter-Clinic Community Organizing (OPICCO). We also provide support to the ODSP Action Coalition and other groups that share our goals.
Check out our dedicated campaigns below and explore our past campaigns here.
Have an idea you want to discuss or a campaign you want to partner on? Get in touch with us.
Making improvements to Ontario’s two social assistance programs, Ontario Works (OW) and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), is at the heart of our work.
For too long, social assistance rates have been flatlined. Incremental increases have been quickly swallowed up by inflation. Raising social assistance rates is crucial to ensuring people with disabilities and people living on low incomes can live with dignity.
In July 2022, ISAC issued a letter signed by over 150 community organizations calling for the provincial government to double ODSP and OW rates. To find out more about our ongoing Raise the Rates campaign, click here.
ISAC works closely with the ODSP Action Coalition, a province-wide coalition of community-based organizations, anti-poverty groups, legal clinics, and people with disabilities on ODSP.
The Coalition was formed in 2002 following province-wide community consultations that found serious problems with the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), which many people with disabilities in Ontario depend on for their survival. The Coalition’s mission is to push for improvements to ODSP so that people with disabilities can live with justice and dignity.
ISAC staff participate in and support various Coalition committees and activities.
Membership Form – Join the Coalition!
ODSP AC Pamphlet – ODSP Action Coalition’s Mission, Key Demands and Tactics.
Disability Declaration – ODSP Action Coalition’s Declaration on the Rights of People with Disabilities and Governments’ responsibilities.
Check out the website, “like” the Facebook page , or check out the Twitter to get additional information, keep in touch, and learn more about ODSP issues.
Poverty reduction is an important policy framework that allows us to advocate to government for improvements to income security law and policy.
Our Community Organizing work on poverty reduction has involved engaging and organizing with people in communities across Ontario to support them in voicing their needs and expectations for government’s role in reducing and eliminating poverty, whether through government consultations or through more community-based activities.
This work is done in partnership with local community legal clinics and specialty legal clinics, and community partners like ODSP Action Coalition and Ontario Campaign 2000.
Advocating for workers’ rights is a core piece of ISAC’s community organizing work. ISAC supports campaigns which advocate for decent work, better wages, paid sick days, increased worker protections as well as enforcement of existing protections, and more.
ISAC is currently supporting campaigns run by Justice for Workers, Gig Workers United, and the Migrant Rights Network.
