Writing letters to the editor: Learning from the pros

With less than two months until the election, the community social services sector needs to make its case to politicians and the public.

We know that the sector is in crisis, and children, youth, seniors, families, people with disabilities and others are being hurt as a result.

One good way to raise the issues is through letters to the editor. They’re easy to write, newspapers want them and they reach a lot of people. And at least some of those people will contact candidates to share your concerns.

The best letters are from the heart, and about your experiences. The posts on this blog might suggest topics, and provide facts to support your arguments,

And it’s easy to learn from the experts.

The political parties have guides to writing letters to the editors on their websites, and email addresses for newspapers across the province. 

And the BC Healthy Living Alliance has a useful list of letters to the editor email addresses here.

Write one today.

Even if plans for children in care were in place, services aren't there

"If those services don’t exist, or there are huge waiting lists, those plans are just pieces of paper in ministry filing cabinets."

It is, sadly, not surprising the provincial government is failing some 4,500 children in long-term care.

The latest audit by the Representative for Children and Youth found just five out of 100 children had plans of care that met the ministry’s requirements.

Plans of care are critical documents. Parents know their own children - their strengths and weaknesses, the areas where they need help, when it’s time to go to a dentist.

But children and youth in the government’s care routinely move through a succession of foster homes. Frontline workers are responsible for some 30 individuals.

Without a written plan of care, regularly updated with the participation of the youth and others, there is a real risk that children will fall through the cracks. They won’t get help or opportunities, and small problems will fester.

This isn’t a new, surprising program. It has existed since the ministry for children and families was created 17 years ago.

It is a critical failure. The government has acknowledged that and committed to improvements, including more funding as it is required.

Fixing the planning process is essential to identify the services and support children and youth need - from social workers, foster parents, schools, health professionals.

But if those services don’t exist, or there are huge waiting lists, those plans are just pieces of paper in ministry filing cabinets.

The community social services sector delivers many of those services and supports, through private and non-profit agencies across the province.

And today, the sector is in crisis. Underfunding and freezes have left agencies unable to meet even critical needs. 

That’s why anyone concerned for the future of children and youth, families, seniors and so many others who need a little help should be working to make support for the sector an issue in this election.

Conservative election platform shows big work ahead for sector

Mamie Hutt-Temoana

The BC Conservatives released their election platform today, the first party to reveal its plans if elected.

It’s a good reminder of the big job facing those who believe the community social services sector and the difference it makes in so many lives - and in the future of the province.

The Conservative platform is 24 pages long, and detailed in many areas. There are plans for budgeting and incomes and health and education.

But there is nothing about providing people in communities with the help and support they need.

The closest the platform comes even to acknowledging the sector are these two paragraphs.

“Strong and loving families are the bedrock of our communities – and are deserving of support from society and government,” says the platform. “We believe in a strong social-safety net for those who truly need assistance, and at the same time we encourage individuals to be productive and self- sufficient.”

Draw two conclusions from the platform’s lack of any plans for the sector or improving supports for seniors, children, families, people with disabilities - the some 320,000 people who will need help in any given year, even if briefly.

First, the sector has failed to make the case to the Conservatives - the party and the candidates - that its work is important. That every $1 invested in early child development brings $3 to $18 in benefits later in life, or that home care support costs 25% to 60% less than residential care. 

The platform, for example, calls for more spending on the justice system. But it does not recognize that our sector, working with youth at risk or dealing with addiction, keeps people out of the system, while making communities safer. Or that it costs $215,000 to keep a youth in custody, versus $20,000 to support them in the community.

And second, the sector and its supporters have failed to demonstrate to the Conservatives that this is an issue that matters to voters.

There is no reason to single the Conservatives out. We don’t yet know if three other main parties will address the sector’s importance, and its challenges, in their platforms.

But it’s a reminder that the elections is two months away.

The sector and its supporters need to use that time to ensure that all parties and candidates understands its importance and the issue it now faces.

That takes action. 

Write the parties, and your local candidates, and share facts about the sector and the support you are seeking. (This blog and the Community Counts Facebook page are good resources. The Tyee election website has contact information for local candidates.)

Write letters to the editor to make the same points.

Attend candidates’ forums, and speak to friends and neighbours.

So far, we haven’t done a good enough job of getting our message out.

That needs to change.

Mamie Hutt-Temoana is the executive director of the Association of Neighbourhood Houses of BC. 

Questions for candidates on support for seniors in our communities

The CCPA has a useful fact sheet on health care and community supports for seniors here.

Even more useful, it offers suggested questions citizens can put to all candidates and political parties on the issue.

It’s good to understand issues. It is better to act to make things better.

And that can be as easy as writing to candidates and parties and letting them know that why community social services - like support for seniors - matter. Or asking questions like the ones raised by the CCPA, either in letters to candidates or newspapers or at all-candidates forums and meetings.

Candidates and parties respond to issues that matter to the public. They need to hear the sectors’ concerns.

The Tyee has a good election site that includes contact information for many local candidates, so it’s easy to let them know why the issues are important. Party websites also have contact information.

And this blog and the Community Counts Facebook page are great sources of information.

Use them. Act.

How community services save money, not just lives

Supporting community social services is a matter of both decency and dollars and sense.

As the article below illustrates, services that provide meals and food to those in dire need result in a dramatic reduction in 911 calls. 

That means big savings. Kelowna RCMP estimate the basic cost of responding to a 911 call at $200. If the situation is complex, or fire and paramedics also respond, costs quickly soar.

In addition, the call can result in incarceration or a trip to the emergency ward, adding thousands of dollars more.

Providing support isn’t just the right to do.

It’s the smart thing to do.

Make sure the political parties and your local candidates understand and support the value of community social services in B.C.

And check here for information on how to let them know how you feel.

How a decent meals can keep people from brink

Research on people with mental illnesses in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside links better nutrition to fewer 911 calls.

By Colleen Kimmett

TheTyee.ca

On an empty stomach it's easy to find fault with my fellow transit passengers, even the littlest ones. I'm sitting on the 99 B-line trying not to openly scowl at a toddler who is planted on his mother's lap gnawing at a cracker. His chin is shiny with saliva, and soggy crumbs stick to his fat cheeks. Gross. I look away in disgust as his mom lovingly strokes his hair.

Karen Cooper

By the time I arrive at my destination -- a café in Kitsilano -- and wolf down a croissant, I'm feeling much better about the world. It's an appropriate start to my interview with Karen Cooper, who can relate to the anecdote.

Cooper, a professor at Corpus Christi (a small Catholic college on the grounds of UBC) understands well what happens to most people's thought patterns when they are deprived of glucose. For the past five years, she has been poring over scientific literature on the relationship between nutrition and mental health and conducting her own original field research in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

Cooper is trying to quantify what most working and living in the neighbourhood already know: food, or lack thereof, has a big impact on people's moods and behaviour.

And she's found a novel way to measure this: by looking at the number of 911 calls to the neighbourhood's single-resident occupancy (SRO) buildings, before and after the introduction of meal programs.

Her research so far, she says, indicates that "Basically, anytime anyone introduces food, you get this enormous decrease in 911 calls, police fire and ambulance."

How much of a decrease? Although Cooper says she hasn't completely finished crunching and analyzing her data, conservatively, she says, the average drop in the total number of critical incidents involving all services (police, fire and ambulance) fell between 25 and 33 per cent across the residences she looked at. That's between a period several months before the introduction of meals on site, and a period 18 months to two years later. Police calls alone saw a drop of between 40 and 50 per cent, says Cooper.

Cooper looked at seven residences in total, and warns me that she needs to collect data from more in order to make her findings statistically relevant in an academic context.

"Having said that, I feel all the time like I'm trying to prove the obvious," she says. "Which is, if you don't feed people, bad things happen. If you don't feed mentally-unwell, addicted and often physically-unwell people, even worse things happen."

Read the rest here.

Child care advocates take election initiative

A good story from The Tyee on the Coalition of Child Care Advocate's plan to use the election to get action - or at least commitments - on better public child care.

And a lesson for the community social services sector and its supporters.

Politicians and parties respond to issue that they believe matter to voters.

And silence from the sector signals that its issues - underfunding, waiting lists, service shortages - don't matter.

Act - write letters, attend forums, follow the Community Counts Twitter feed (@communityvote) and like the Facebook page. Share the posts and tweets. And encourage anyone you know to do the same.

There less than nine weeks until election day on May 14.

Less than nine weeks for you to help create a better future for community social services and the province.

B.C. child-care advocates say sector in crisis

By YOLANDE COLE

Sharon Gregson has observed firsthand some of the challenges facing parents with young children, and early childhood educators in B.C.

Common situations that the long-time child-care advocate, who’s the director of child and family development services at Collingwood Neighbourhood House, has seen include families being forced to leave licensed daycares because they can’t afford the fees, and early childhood educators leaving the field because they are still making $16 an hour after more than a decade of work.

Sharon Gregson: Election initiative

It’s a reality that Gregson says is only getting worse, as costs continue to increase each year. And with the provincial election approaching, advocates are ramping up their campaign for politicians to address the issue.

“The biggest crisis for families with young children at the moment is childcare, and so that needs to be front and centre,” Gregson told the Georgia Straight by phone.

As a spokesperson for the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of B.C., Gregson is at the forefront of calls for a publicly funded child-care system that would cost parents $10 a day. Since the coalition, along with the Early Childhood Educators of B.C., released the $10-a-day proposal in 2011, Gregson said it has “taken off like a house on fire”. Supporters include labour organizations, more than 15 municipalities, and over a dozen school districts.

“What this has done now is increased expectations that it is going to be an election issue, and that the NDP has to put something better on the table than the Liberals have in their budget/election platform,” Gregson said. “And the message to those people who want to be elected in May is that if you commit to the goals of the $10-a-day plan, you’ll garner votes, and if you’re silent on it or ignore it, then you’ll lose votes.”

Read more here.

Why community services matter - a fair chance for children

By Carol Matusicky 

It's tough to show up on the first day of kindergarten, keen, hopeful, nervous and then realize that you're already behind.

Yet that's reality for almost 30 per cent of children heading to kindergarten in this province.

It's not fair. In fact, it's cruel.

And it's wasteful. All our children should have a chance to succeed - for their sakes, and for the province's future.

In the community-services sector, local organizations work every day to strengthen families and ensure every child arrives in kindergarten ready to learn. We work with families on parenting skills, help with job searches and provide children with the supports they need to overcome challenges.

It hasn't been enough. We're stretched, communities are stretched and children are paying the price.

The provincial government deserves credit for recognizing the problem. In 2003, it launched the "Success by Six" program.

In 2009, the government made a bolder commitment. The "15 by 15" initiative set a goal of having only 15 per cent of children starting kindergarten not ready to learn by 2015.

That would be a tremendous achievement. But the efforts have fallen far short.

The University of British Columbia's Human Early Learning Partnership tracks school readiness across the province. In 2006, it reported 29.6 per cent of children were entering school not ready to learn.

Last year, it reported 30.9 per cent of children arrived in kindergarten not ready to learn. Despite the efforts, and welcome innovations like Strong Start Centres, the situation worsened.

Children aren't ready to succeed in school for many reasons - emotional immaturity, lack of language skills, poor social adjustment or physical problems.

But the UBC research found that with appropriate help, the percentage of children not ready to learn could be cut from 30 per cent to 10 per cent.

And while poverty is a factor, researchers discovered most vulnerable children are middle class. All children and families need access to services and support.

Our sector provides that help. Our organizations and agencies work with families in need. We help them find jobs, be the best parents possible. When families face bigger problems - emotional, addiction or lost housing - we help with the crisis and provide the skills to avoid future problems.

Take one example. Burnaby Family Life Association offers educational and support programs for parents of preschoolers. They share and learn about their children's health and development, and grow stronger together. There are programs for families new to Canada, or facing financial problems.

We need support to let us do more.

That makes economic sense. When children start school behind, they often never catch up. The Human Early Learning Partnership estimates reducing the percentage of children not ready to learn to 10 per cent would boost B.C.'s economy by 20 per cent over the next 60 years.

It's also a question of the kind of province we want.

When a five-year-old girl shows up for her first day of kindergarten, it should be exciting. She shouldn't face the harsh realization that, through no fault of her own, she is already behind the other children, with no idea how to catch up.

Our sector wants to change that. We believe all British Columbians feel the same way.

Carol Matusicky is vice chairwoman of the Board Voice Society of B.C., a voice for volunteer community based boards. She wrote this on behalf of the Roundtable of Provincial Social Service Organizations.

Learning how to make your voice heard in the election process

All the political parties are devoting a great deal of effort right now to mobilizing their supporters in advance if the May provincial election.

They want to make sure, at a minimum, that they vote.

But they want them to participate much more fully - going to candidates forums, writing letters to the editor, talking to friends and neighbours.

The Community Counts campaign isn’t about any political party.

But we need to learn from them.

Success in getting badly needed support for the sector depends on you, and the thousands of others who rely on the sector for services or simply care about a better future for individuals and the province.

Inclusion BC (formerly the Association for Community Living) has great guide to participating fully in the election process here.

It’s well worth reading.