• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Income Security Advocacy Centre

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

  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our Board
    • Our Staff
    • Our History
    • Contact Us
  • Our Work
    • Litigation
    • Policy Advocacy
    • Community Organizing
    • Public Education
  • Resources
    • Media & Policy News
    • Publications Archive
    • Links
  • Updates
  • Blog
  • Navigation Right

    • A A A
Home / Our Work / Community Organizing / Past Campaigns / Pay the Rent and Feed the Kids

Pay the Rent and Feed the Kids

ptr_logo_smThe “Pay the Rent and Feed the Kids” campaign was initiated in Ottawa by the Somerset West Action Network (SWAN) to challenge inadequate social assistance benefits, as a result of the 21.6% cut to basic welfare benefits in 1995 and subsequent erosion due to inflation.

The campaign swiftly spread throughout Ontario, with local initiatives taken up by groups in Cobourg, Halton, Hamilton, Kingston, London, Muskoka, North  Bay, Northumberland, Ottawa, Peterborough, Sarnia, Thunder Bay, Toronto, and Windsor, among others.

The campaign coalition members included the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (ACTO), the Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation (CERA), DAWN Ontario: DisAbled Women’s Network Ontario, ISAC (when we were called the Income Security Legal Clinic or ISLC), Ontario Social Safety Network, Somerset West Action Network (SWAN), and The Workfare Watch Project. The campaign benefited from significant support from the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE).

Activities included persuading local town and city councils to advocate for higher rates, making presentations at provincial pre-budget hearings, garnering media coverage about the problems faced by people receiving social assistance benefits, collecting endorsements of the campaign from interested groups, organizations and individuals, the creation and distribution of campaign kits and other materials, raising the issue during election campaigns, holding community forums, and direct lobbying of politicians at the municipal and provincial levels.

A selection of documents from the campaign are available below.

 

 

  • Related Documents
  • Pay The Rent And Feed The Kids - MPP Lobby Kit - 2003
  • Pay The Rent And Feed The Kids - Poster - 2003
  • Pay The Rent And Feed The Kids - Banner Ads - 2003
  • Pay The Rent & Feed The Kids - Backgrounder - Welfare Myth And Reality - 2003
  • Pay The Rent And Feed The Kids - Fact Sheet - 2003
  • Pay The Rent And Feed The Kids - Brochure - 2003
  • Pay The Rent And Feed The Kids - Petition - 2003
  • Pay The Rent And Feed The Kids - Our Stories - First Person Accounts Of Life On Social Assistance - 2002
  • Pay The Rent And Feed The Kids - Paying More, Getting Less - Backgrounder - 2002
  • Pay The Rent And Feed The Kids - Turning Our Backs On Our Children - 2002
  • Pay The Rent And Feed The Kids - Endorsement Form - 2002

Primary Sidebar

Our Work

  • Litigation
  • Policy Advocacy
  • Community Organizing
    • Social Assistance Reform
    • ODSP Action Coalition
    • Poverty Reduction
    • Provincial Elections
    • Past Campaigns
      • ODSP Work-Related Benefit
      • Bill C585 / C43 – Residency Requirements for Social Assistance
      • CSUMB / Housing and Homelessness Supports
      • Hands Off!
      • Ontario Needs a Raise
      • Pay the Rent and Feed the Kids
  • Public Education

Footer

Get Updates

Join our mailing list to get periodic email updates
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Our Work
  • Media & Policy News
  • Publications Archive
  • En Français
  • Sitemap
  • Contact Us

Copyright © 2019 Income Security Advocacy Centre Log inDocuments