SOCIAL JUSTICE TORONTO-BASED PROJECT
ABOUT ODSP AND OW
August 2019

going from the personal to the systemic: advocacy

- look at our context

poverty is considered as an individual problem rather than a systemic problem (even journalists do not understand the difference); it is often attached to shame and stigma as disabiity is; social assistance system that is called last-resort and keeps us largely under poverty line as if we had to be punished for something, i.e. devalues our very existence

we live in a system that does not trust us as willing to do our best to work if/when we can; in a system that does not want our supported way of life to appear attractive, and so, we are portrayed as living in shameful conditions, with shame; for ODSP and OW, a system of about 800 rules some of them infringing our rights and very contradictory: it wants us to work, but also claws back on our earnings and pushes us in stress way before we reach some kind of peace with life; housing market impossible to navigate; a current austerity agenda, unfair budget cut to MCSS, download of responsiblity for this unjustified austerity onto the ones in the most vulnerable positions (partly because we are the ones with the least power to resist), restrictions of legal services and of our rights, atmosphere of fear and divisiveness, little interest from the opposition, a lot of language, few actions by the opposition, same by the city of Toronto

- look at our rights and at tools to enforce them

WHENEVER YOU BLAME YOURSELF or feel ashamed for your poverty,
you are applying violence to yourself and YOU ARE NOT ADVOCATING
 someone does not keep jobs for very long. why is that?

ADVOCACY FOR YOURSELF 
- put the responsibility of your poverty and of the stress of it onto the system
- embody some of the self-respect that is not given to you by the system
	(ex: ask for respect -ex by journalist-, for support, learn to let triggers not be violence on you, etc.)
- make the unfairness of the system visible in your circle
- try to negotiate a better situation with the individuals involved
- try to teach your superiors that they are also victims of the system that puts stress on you and them
- advocate for your rights, defend them when possible
- find the support you need

ADVOCACY FOR ALL OF US
- include everybody with stress of poverty in your thinking
- understand divisiveness between us as an effect of this government’s austerity
- understand the stress of those around us, even bad behaviour of case workers or legal workers as the result of a badly designed social assistance system
- try to find/generate solidarity
- refer to our rights
- make your voice public
- think twice before describing your story in details (would it be sufficient that you say it is not ok without having to describe why?) and be aware of why you do it when you do (sometimes it is a good strategy)
- make it clear to journalists and government that we should be participating in the design of social assistance