North Bay and Area Social Planning Council
News Release

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The Interfaith Social Assistance Reform Coalition (ISARC) is coordinating a cross-community Social Audit in Ontario to provide opportunities for the most vulnerable of our society to tell their stories of living in poverty and give their suggestions for system improvement. The Government of Ontario is currently reviewing social assistance. The Social Audit will identify the social effects of current government policies and actions towards people living in poverty and communicate the recommendations for changes that have come out of hearings hosted by poverty reduction groups and social development organizations across the province. Here in North Bay, the North Bay and Area Social Planning Council is working with the Poverty Reduction Working Group of Nipissing (PRWG) and faith leaders to host this important Social Audit to ensure that local voices are heard. The Social Audit hopes to have an impact of the Province’s Social Assistance Review.

Using a modified UN Rapporteur model, people with the lived experiences of poverty, whether it be single parents, people with disabilities, working poor, new immigrants or single adults, and front-line social and health service workers will share their stories and be heard by local faith leaders. To advocate for change to the current system, it is necessary that those people directly affected by government policy be given a voice to express the ways in which policies are helping or hindering them in their struggles with poverty, and an opportunity to identify the supports that are needed to help them achieve their personal goals and live their lives free from poverty.

The North Bay Hearings are scheduled for March 23 and 24, 2010.

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