St. Christopher House Work on Social Policy
(Highlighting the work of Richard Shillington & John Stapleton)
From the March 7/04 issue of the Canadian Social Research Newsletter published by Gilles Seguin in Ottawa.
Both Gilles' website, Canadian Social Research Links, and his weekly newsletter (with over 1,200 subscribers) are amazing resources for knowledge sharing.
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St.
Chris Work on Social Policy
http://www.stchrishouse.org/cusp.htm
"St. Christopher House's Community Undertaking Social Policy (CUSP)
program brings policy experts into our organization for several months
in order to have a dialogue with community members most affected by social
policy (ie. low-income and otherwise disadvantaged people) and with frontline
agency staff and volunteers. In this way, St. Chris is trying to bridge
the gap between the worlds of policy-makers and the lived experiences
of diverse community members.
To date, Richard Shillington and our most recent CUSP policy expert, John Stapleton, have produced a number of reports that are available to the public. Both policy experts have focussed on income security policies and programs. See also our current work on Income Security Strategies for Working-Age Adults."
- Follow this link
to read the text of the oral presentation to the Committee:
Presentation to the Standing Committee on Finance
http://www.stchrishouse.org/cusp/standing-cmtte-finance.pdf (PDF file - 150K, 1 page)
by Susan Pigott and John Stapleton
St. Christopher House
http://www.stchrishouse.org/
November 6, 2003 - Follow this link
to read the detailed paper that was submitted by St. Chris House for
consideration by the Committee:
Registered Development Savings Plan (RDSP) : A Proposal for a Tax Prepaid Savings Plan Exempt from Welfare Restrictions on Assets and Income
http://www.stchrishouse.org/cusp/rdsp.pdf (PDF file - 319K, 26 pages)
November 2003 (Revised Dec. 2003)
Pre-Budget Submission to the House of Commons Committee on Finance - More links
RDSP Questions and Answers
http://www.stchrishouse.org/cusp/rdsp-q-n-a.pdf (PDF file - 75K, 3 pages)
Learning from the Public and the Lived Experience of St. Christopher House Participants
http://www.stchrishouse.org/cusp/learning-from-lived-experience.pdf (PDF file - 467K, 11 pages)
Personal impressions by John Stapleton, retired Ontario government bureaucrat, after his first seven months at St. Christopher House.
What Could Be Done
http://www.stchrishouse.org/cusp/what-could-be-done.pdf (PDF file - 103K, 6 pages)
Richard Shillington offers "a very unstructured list (...) of various flaws, problems, screw-ups in the design of support programs which could be corrected" --- 14 specific 'fixes' for programs like Old Age Security, the Canada Pension Plan, provincial-territorial welfare programs and the income tax system, to help improve the financial well-being of people with low income. Several of the suggestions focus on asset retention strategies for people on low income and households on
welfare. This list originally appeared on Richard's website early in 2002.
[ Tristat Resources - Richard Shillington's website: http://www.shillington.ca/ ]
Punished for their providence
http://www.stchrishouse.org/cusp/carol-goar-rdsp.pdf (PDF file - 131K, 2 pages)
December 3, 2003 - Carol Goar (Toronto Star)
"Their instincts were bravely right, their plans pathetically wrong. Three single parents came to John Stapleton at St. Christopher House, asking how to start a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP). He told them they'd be crazy to do it."
Key Papers on Income Security for Working Age Canadians
http://www.stchrishouse.org/incomesec/key-papers.htm
Llinks to 11 online papers covering a range of issues related to income security, from a number of sources, including the Caledon Institute, the Social Assistance in the New Economy project at the University of Toronto, the Ontario Coalition for Social Justice, the New Democratic Party, etc.
Sources:
Income Security for Working-age Adults in Ontario
http://www.stchrishouse.org/incomesec.htm
This St. Christopher House project is a three-stage process involving
diverse stakeholders "to develop practical, responsive and 'modern'
strategies for income security for working-age people in Ontario."-
includes detailed info about the project
Canadian Social
Research Links Asset-Based Social Policies page
http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/assets.htm
Canadian Social
Research Links Ontario Municipal and Non-Governmental Sites (D-W) page
http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/onbkmrk3.htm
Return to DAWN Ontario index page
Page last updated March 7, 2004