Toronto Star: Waiting, for answers, case by case

Jun 22, 2007 04:30 AM
(Toronto star)
Joe Fiorito

A hundred bucks is not a lot of money if you earn a decent paycheque. But if you collect a provincial disability pension – not exactly a decent paycheque – you can earn $100 a month by doing volunteer work with a community organization.

The Community Participation program is tied to the Ontario Disability
Support Program and Ontario Works through city social services; it gets
people usefully involved in the community, and is gently intended to get
certain recipients back to work.

I know one guy, Milo, who has used CP to develop his skills as a computer programmer; there are thousands of people like him.

But Milo's $100 may be in jeopardy; his, and everyone else's. Because when he called to renew his participation in the program the other day, he was told June 18 was the last possible day; no more renewals after that.
Yikes.

He got in under the wire, and called Jonah Schein at The Stop, a west end community food centre. The Stop relies on some 160 volunteers; Milo's one of them.

Jonah called the Ministry of Community and Social Services.

In response to his queries he got a faxed note from the ministry; with the fax came the draft of a letter from Toronto's social services department.

The draft letter, intended for community agencies that use ODSP/OW
volunteers, reads, in part, "As of June 18, 2007, direct referrals by
community agencies to OW CP placements will no longer be accepted." Gulp.

The faxed note, written by a junior staffer on ministry letterhead, is
intended as a clarification; it reads, in part, "The implementation date
of June 18th ... has been changed to a date to be determined in the fall." Something's clearly up, but Jonah couldn't get any more information.

Milo is clearly worried. He asked me not to use his real name because he
fears reprisal from his social workers; he has four of them. He also has
attention deficit disorder, narcolepsy and scoliosis. He said, "There's a stigma attached to being on social assistance ... I've seen how petty
people are."

He also said, "I've developed skills on ODSP. If you're on disability,
you're not allowed to go to school; on my own, I've learned to fix and
build computers."

After speaking with Jonah, I had a conversation with Brenda Nesbitt,
director of social services for the City of Toronto. She was clearly
unhappy to hear from me.

She said, "The draft letter was never approved. It should never have got
out." I said, "But it was written." She said, "It's not killing the
program. It's changing the referral process."

Meaning some people will be cut off in the fall? Meaning the city is
backing away from the Community Participation program? Meaning what,
exactly?

She sighed. "There are no changes at this point. If there are changes to
the program there will be ample notice as to what it is, client by client. I don't know what's going to happen case by case."

Parse that on your own.

She also said, "We're reviewing all our programs, ODSP and Ontario Works. We have a number of volunteers we have to look at; so does ODSP. There are no changes at this time. I can't say there will or won't be in the future." She sighed again. "It shouldn't have gone out."

So what are we left with?

Changes? Yes. When? In the fall. At the behest of the city or the
province? Both. Will some people on ODSP continue to earn money by
volunteering in the workplace? Yes. On what grounds? I don't know. Will
some people be cut off in the fall?

Betcha a hundred bucks.