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Social Planning Network of Ontario

Give the Gift of Dignity This Holiday Season

Want to give the Gift of Dignity this Holiday Season?

Sign our Petition to Put Food in the Budget of our neighbours on social assistance. An immediate increase of $100/month to enable people to purchase healthy food is a gift that:

combats hunger and injustice
reduces reliance on our already over-burdened food banks and volunteers
is a start at eliminating some of the wasted time and energy that goes into maintaining our systemic, second rate food system for the poor.
is a first step towards raising rates to adequate levels that reflect the real cost of living in Ontario.
restores the right of individuals to purchase their own healthy food
is simply the right thing to do.

Thanks to all of you who sign this petition and help to restore some balance in a world where Charity cannot redress poverty and inequity.

Sign the Petition here:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/put-food-in-the-budget.html

Let’s Vote for a Healthy and Inclusive Community

On the cusp of the provincial election Laurentian University Social Work students at the Centre for Research and Social Justice Policy and others speak out about eradicating poverty in Ontario and what they expect from politicians via the video below

Let's Vote for a Poverty Free Ontario

MEDIA RELEASE

For Immediate Release:
8:00 AM, Thursday, September 15, 2011

From Cornwall to Windsor, from Sudbury to Fort Erie

“LET’S VOTE FOR A POVERTY FREE ONTARIO”

Election-style signs are going up in communities across Ontario this morning, as a coalition of faith groups and community-based organizations call for making poverty eradication a priority concern in the provincial election campaign.

The Social Planning Network of Ontario (SPNO) and the Interfaith Social Assistance Reform Coalition (ISARC) are co-sponsoring Poverty Free Ontario (PFO) as a non-partisan initiative to urge all political parties and electoral candidates to make a commitment for ending poverty in Ontario in this decade. The press conference in Toronto with various religious leaders will ask the provincial political party leaders to commit to a debate on poverty.

Media conferences being held simultaneously in up to 16 communities on Thursday morning, September 15 will be followed by a “sign blitz” as teams of local supporters place “Let’s Vote for a Poverty Free Ontario” signs on the grounds of participating organizations and individuals throughout their communities. A list of participating communities and contacts is attached to this release.

“Ontario’s poverty rate stands at 13.1%, the highest level in the last thirty years,” says Peter Clutterbuck, PFO Coordinator for the SPNO, “Community members and civic organizations in touch daily with the intolerable living conditions of low income Ontarians recognize that ending poverty is a major political issue. For example, in Cornwall, City Council has proclaimed September 15 as Poverty Free Ontario Day.”