TORONTO — An idea that grew out of a four-hour train ride from Ottawa to Toronto has resulted in a two-year pilot project aimed at helping the working poor.
Janice Roth
The result of the brainstorming session on the train, by representatives from several communal agencies, is the now one-year-old Jewish Poverty Action Group (JPAG), which offers the working poor support and a hand up. JPAG is led by Jewish Family & Child and Jewish Immigrant Aid Services (JIAS) Toronto, with the ongoing participation of JVS, the Kehilla Residential Program and UJA Federation of Greater Toronto.
JIAS Toronto executive director Janis Roth said representatives from the agencies were so charged up after attending the 2005 national conference of Association of Jewish Family and Children’s Agencies (AJFCA) that they decided something had to be done for the working poor.
Roth said they concentrated on the working poor because that is the group that is most ignored. “They are not poor enough for financial assistance, but they are not over the poverty line. The low income cutoff for a family of four is $38,000.”
The group was inspired by David Bornstein, author of How to Change the World, who spoke at the conference. “He got us thinking about how one person could be responsible for leading change,” Roth said. “We thought that if we all pooled our resources together, we could really do something.”
She said the group began by looking at what is keeping the working poor in poverty.
“They’re not earning enough or they are working in jobs below their expertise, and they are paying too much for housing. Research shows that the average person can pay 32 per cent of their income on housing. People at risk of homelessness pay 50 to 70 per cent of their income on housing, and poor people may be 70 per cent,” she said.
“They have to make choices – rent or food – and they go to the food bank like a grocery store.”
Social inclusion is also difficult, she added, because people who have to choose between rent and food cannot join communal life. “When looking to help people, we have to address all three pieces.”
Roth said JPAG received a grant from the Jewish Foundation of Greater Toronto to hire co-ordinator Dalia Margalit-Faircloth, who solicited referrals from communal agencies for families who were in a position to make a commitment to the JPAG program and who were receiving subsidies from the community.
“I was looking for people who could jump to the next step with just a little hand up. I wanted them to be motivated to change their lives, not be in a crisis,” Roth said.
Margalit-Faircloth began by working with eight families, Roth said, seven of whom had a family member who enrolled in a course.
One woman, a single mother of two who had fled an abusive marriage five years earlier, was earning $8,000 a year, and was living in subsidized housing.
The JPAG program allowed her to attend school full time while supporting her family. “I am so thankful, and am looking forward to achieving my goals, so I can support myself and my children, and assist other abused women and children who are in need,” she wrote in a letter to Margalit-Faircloth.
Another woman wrote that she was an obstetrician from South America and was working in a lab in a downtown hospital. “The JPAG program is helping me further my studies so I can achieve a higher standard of living for my family, and develop my full potential. [The program] let me open my eyes and see that there is a bright future ahead that I can reach.”
Roth said that the community has pulled together to help with the project. “Behind Dalia, there is a team of agencies who are working for the success of each person. It’s a client-centric approach. The client is at the centre, and the services work around the client. It is the [right] way to treat people.
“There is no need for anyone to be stuck. With an investment and some retraining, they can become self-reliant, instead of depending on the community. Many of these families will give back more than we gave them.”
