PRESS RELEASE (FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE) – DOCTORS, NURSES, SOCIAL WORKERS, TEACHERS AND LAWYERS JOIN TOGETHER IN THE FIGHT TO ERADICATE POVERTY.
K’JIPUKTUK (HALIFAX, NS)
On October 17th, 2022 (the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty) the Nova Scotia Action Coalition for Community Well-Being launched its new campaign called Poverty is a Political Choice. The campaign calls on professionals to stand united in order to eradicate poverty by demanding that government implement all of the policy recommendations from the CCPA_NS Child and Family Report Card. The campaign which features digital billboards across Nova Scotia and a campaign webpage aims to raise the public discourse on the impacts of poverty on the delivery of core Nova Scotia services.
The campaign launch featured a panel discussion where doctors, lawyers, teachers, nurses, and social workers stood together and called for a collective response to end poverty in order to reduce the stress on all of Nova Scotia’s social and health systems and to enhance the quality of life for all.
Dr. Monika Dutt, a family physician with the Ally Center of Cape Breton, when asked why Nova Scotians should care about poverty stated; “I think about so many patients I see in the clinic for example a woman in her late 20s who lives in horrendous housing, her shower doesn’t work, her oven doesn’t work, her microwave doesn’t work, toilet. She knows that I know if she lives she lived in adequate housing, her health would drastically improve.”
When asked about the narrative in Nova Scotia that folks need to pull then self up by their bootstraps in order to avoid poverty, Lana McLean, a clinical social worker, responded “When we look at bootstraps, we need to ask whose boots we are wearing, and how those boots are made structurally. The narrative is false. Particularly for the African Nova Scotians, the narrative doesn’t speak true to the amount of free labour my community has given to the province, and to this country. It doesn’t speak to the Indigenous communities. It’s their bootstraps everyone is pulling on.”
Morgan Manzer a Lawyer with Nova Scotia Legal Aid spoke about the impact that poverty has on child welfare services, he states “The vast majority of people in the child welfare system live in poverty, disproportionately this impacts racialized folks and creates real challenges. This leads to intrusive involvement, and often we are seeing the removal of children which has a life-long impact. We see the intergenerational trauma continuing as many of my clients, their parents, and grandparents were involved in the child poverty system.”
Researcher and lead author of the Child and Family Report, Dr. Christine Saulnier from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives states that; “Poverty leaves people suffering. We lose out when so many can’t reach their potential. The current government approach is disastrous, but it is designed this way when we live in a province as rich as Nova Scotia then poverty is a political choice and we can make a different choice.”
The campaign calls on professionals to share their stories on the impact that poverty has on the delivery of services so that we can build momentum toward the eradication of poverty and better quality of life for all Nova Scotians.
The Nova Scotia Action Coalition for Community Well-Being is a coalition of community members dedicated to working strategically and collaboratively towards community well-being and a better quality of life for everyone.
For more information and media inquiries contact:
Alec Stratford MSW, RSW
Chair of NSACCW
Alec.Stratford@NSCSW.org
902-410-2420