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Income Security Advocacy Centre

Income Security Advocacy Centre

ISAC works to address issues of income security and poverty in Ontario

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Social Assistance Reform

ODSP Action Coalition – MPP Lobby Kit

The ODSP Action Coalition has created a lobby kit for advocates to use in meetings with their MPPs on the Social Assistance Review. The Coalition is a provincial group advocating for people with disabilities on ODSP and considers the Social Assistance Review the most important opportunity in decades to improve ODSP so that people with disabilities can live with dignity. Unfortunately, the Coalition is increasingly worried that any restructuring that comes out of the review will be more about reducing the costs of ODSP than improving the lives of people with disabilities.

April 18, 2012
Policy Advocacy, Social Assistance Reform

ISAC Response to the Commission’s Second Discussion Paper

To create a response that addresses the issues that affect groups that deal with the most disadvantage in our economy and in society, we’ve been working with partners in the community legal clinic system and community partners with concerns around the impact of social assistance on people with disabilities, women, members of racialized communities, and newcomers. We are still hosting meetings with our community partners, but have reached the point at which we can share draft elements of our submission to the Commission.

March 15, 2012
Policy Advocacy, Social Assistance Reform

Positive or Punitive: What will Reform Mean for People with Disabilities?

We must state at the outset that this kind of understanding of the needs and reality of life for people with disabilities did not come through in “Approaches for Reform”.

March 14, 2012
Policy Advocacy, Social Assistance Reform

The Social Assistance Review: It Doesn’t End with Drummond

Abandoning the Social Assistance Review process due solely to Drummond’s recommendations would be deeply counterproductive. Now is the time for people on social assistance, their advocates and allies to fight even harder for the kind of system that can and must be built in Ontario. But it’s going to take efforts in two distinct areas to get the job done.

February 29, 2012
Community Organizing, Policy Advocacy, Social Assistance Reform

The Options Paper: What Does It Say and What Does It Mean? (webinar and backgrounders)

In this webinar, Jennefer Laidley of the Income Security Advocacy Centre presents information that will help groups and individuals understand and respond to the Commission’s Options Paper. The webinar explains where the review process is now and what some of the problems with the paper are, gives a brief overview of the current political and economic context, dissects the paper to construct a picture of what is actually being proposed, and goes through some of the implications.

February 17, 2012
Policy Advocacy, Public Education, Social Assistance Reform

Webinar Series: Preparing for the Options Paper (with toolkit)

In this webinar series, Jennefer Laidley and Dana Milne of the Income Security Advocacy Centre (ISAC) present information on 3 different options expected in the Commission’s Options Paper and offer a variety of tools to help groups across Ontario organize consultations in their communities and make submissions.

January 26, 2012
Policy Advocacy, Public Education, Social Assistance Reform

Racialized Communities Consultations Report

Colour of Poverty/Colour of Change (COP-COC) is a province wide campaign made up of individuals and organizations working to build community-based capacity to address the growing racialization of poverty and the resulting increased levels of…

October 19, 2011
Policy Advocacy, Social Assistance Reform

Including the Voices of People on OW and ODSP

The Income Security Advocacy Centre (ISAC), the ODSP Action Coalition and the Schizophrenia Society of Ontario created a Workshop Facilitator’s Guide for advocates to use to hold discussions with people on social assistance. A number…

September 8, 2011
Community Organizing, Policy Advocacy, Social Assistance Reform

Submission to the Commission for the Review of Social Assistance in Ontario

This submission examines why the current Ontario Works (OW) program cannot reach objectives consistent with poverty reduction under its current policy framework. It will also look at the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP). While ODSP shares many of the same problems as OW with respect to financial eligibility, unlike OW it has promising legislative objectives that have been given effect in judicial decisions at the highest level. While these objectives have not been fully realized, the program nonetheless has some important features that should not be discarded but instead built upon.

September 1, 2011
Policy Advocacy, Social Assistance Reform

An Activation Agenda for People with Disabilities on ODSP

We determined that it would be helpful to outline the Coalition’s ideas for ODSP reform within a framework that we call an “Activation Agenda”. This model of employment-related supports is made up of four key elements that we believe are the foundation for an Ontario Disability Support Program that would actually meet the objectives it was set out to achieve.

September 1, 2011
Policy Advocacy, Social Assistance Reform

Analysis of Commission’s First Discussion Paper

The Income Security Advocacy Centre (ISAC) has prepared this document to highlight some of the key issues in the Commission’s Discussion Paper, summarize what the Discussion Paper says, identify some of the opportunities it presents, and signal some of the risks. We hope that this document will be of use to people who are making a submission to the Commission or who are responding to the questions that the Commission asks in its Workbook.

July 27, 2011
Policy Advocacy, Public Education, Social Assistance Reform

Responding to the Review of Social Assistance

ISAC, together with many community and social policy partners, have been calling for an overhaul of social assistance since the government announced its commitment to developing a poverty reduction strategy. We did this because Ontario Works (OW), as a “work first” program, is not meeting its stated objectives: it has failed as a program to provide income supports effectively, and it has failed as a program to promote labour market attachment. Ontario Works in particular undermines the values and policy framework of Ontario’s Poverty Reduction Act, and Poverty Reduction Strategy. While the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) certainly needs improvement, it is OW that needs transformation.

July 27, 2011
Policy Advocacy, Social Assistance Reform
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1500 – 55 University Avenue, Toronto, ON M5J 2H7
Tel: (416) 597-5820 • Toll Free: 1-866-245-4072 • Fax: (416) 597-5821

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This site contains general legal information for people in Ontario, Canada. It is not intended to be used as legal advice for a specific legal problem. ISAC is a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization. ISAC is funded by Legal Aid Ontario (LAO). The funding for this website is also provided by LAO. The views expressed in any of ISAC’s publications (including written, oral, or visual) are the views of the clinic and do not necessarily reflect those of LAO.