BC Hydro is offering free energy-savings kits for people with low-income. (The income threshold depends on your area of residence as well as number of people in your household.) For details on the kit and registration, click here.

Portable evaporative cooler for sale. Bonaire. Info on this type and brand of cooler at: http://gasmart.com.au/html/bonaire_evaporative_portable_c.html
(Please note: The one for sale is not exactly as shown or described. It is a different model.)

Like new. Paid $500 at J Walsh & Sons. Now $350 or best offer by June 15. Contact: support@onehill.ca

As with all aspects of this site, the event listing feature is currently on a break pending sufficient donations to keep it running.

In response to the call for donations in the current hardcopy, SOUND has received a $20 donation from an anonymous donor. Thank you!! Your contribution is much appreciated!

So far, this is the sole donation to SOUND in the past year. In the four years previous, two donations were received from EarthSave (now EarthCare) Kamloops and one donation (start up) was received from Council of Canadians.

Between the hardcopy and blog, SOUND involves an estimated 150 hours of work per year. Your donation toward the work is received with gratitude!

Advertising in the hardcopy covers the cost of printing the first 500 copies. For this, many thanks to:

Smorgasbord - Delicious meals, fair trade items, 100-mile store, garden center
Movie Mart - Indy films, documentaries, political, more
Thistle Farms - Organic food delivered to your door
All Things Organic - Offering the tidiest, most efficient composting system

A ground-breaking study that for two years followed British Columbians living on welfare paints a disturbing picture of how people are forced to make ends meet under new welfare rules and low rates.

The study was released April 22 by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the Raise the Rates Coalition, as part of the Economic Security Project, a joint CCPA-Simon Fraser University initiative.

Living on Welfare in BC: Experiences of Longer-Term “Expected to Work” Recipients followed 62 people from Vancouver, Victoria and Kelowna.

Among the key findings:

• Much of day-to-day life on welfare is about survival – a constant and frequently unsuccessful struggle to look after basic needs for food, shelter, health and personal safety – making the task of seeking employment hugely difficult if not impossible for many.

• The study establishes an important connection between welfare rules and homelessness. Throughout the study, almost one third of participants reported having no fixed address at some point in the previous six months.

• Welfare benefits are too low. What emerges is a welfare system that is structurally dependent on food banks and other charities in order for people to meet basic needs.

• Far too many people are being cut off of welfare, almost always inappropriately. Seven people in this study were cut off assistance at some point during the two years. Yet none were in fact job-ready, and all struggled with serious addiction and health issues. Once cut off, all lived on virtually no income, were homeless, and most resorted to illegal activities. Cutting these people off is not helping them or society at large.

• Many people remain inappropriately categorized in the basic “Expected to Work” welfare category for far too long. Many of those in the study were ultimately re-categorized with Person with a Disability (PWD) status or as having other barriers to employment. The good news: these people receive slightly higher benefits. The tragedy is that it took so long for people to be re-categorized – minimally two years, and frequently much longer.

• A disturbing number of women in the study either returned to or remained in abusive relationships or engaged in prostitution to make ends meet.

• Only a small fraction of the participants in this study left poverty. Those who remain on assistance remain very poor, even if re-categorized. Those forced off even more so. And while those who shifted from income assistance to the labour market were better off, most are still below the poverty line.

“We focused on people who had been on social assistance for an extended time and who were officially categorized as ‘employable.’ We looked at how they experience the new, tougher work-obligation rules and the hardships they experience,” says Professor Jane Pulkingham, Chair of Sociology and Anthropology at SFU, and co-author of the study.

“This study included many people who never get covered by other studies. As a result, it reveals important new insights about many of society’s most marginalized members,” says Seth Klein, report co-author and director of the CCPA-BC Office.

By following participants for two years, the study was able to compare the experiences of those who stayed on welfare, those who left voluntarily, and those who were cut off of assistance. Students from Simon Fraser University, University of Victoria, and UBC-Okanagan stayed in touch with participants every month, and conducted interviews every 6 months, over the study period.

“The government likes to say declining welfare caseloads is purely a good news story, but it has never done adequate studies that would allow it to make such claims,” says Klein. “So we decided to delve deeper. We wanted to learn more about why people leave assistance, and what happens after they leave.”

Among this study’s policy recommendations are the following:

• Welfare benefit rates must be significantly increased and indexed to inflation.

• The government must make a commitment to categorize welfare clients appropriately, and in a timely manner.

• The regulations and administrative practices that permit people being cut off, even temporarily, must be revisited – they are too arbitrary, are applied inappropriately, and cause unacceptable hardship and harm.

• More meaningful supports must be provided. If more people are to move from welfare to work, they must be provided with housing, help with addiction and health problems, and a level of individualized education and employment supports that can make this possible.

“We urge the provincial government to change its overarching goals, away from a narrow focus on welfare caseload reduction, and move instead to the broader goals of poverty reduction and elimination, and health promotion,” concludes Pulkingham.

Living on Welfare in BC: Experiences of Longer-Term “Expected to Work” Recipients, by Seth Klein and
Jane Pulkingham (with Sylvia Parusel, Kathryn Plancke, Jewelles Smith, Dixon Sookraj, Thi Vu, Bruce Wallace and Jane Worton), can be downloaded at <http://www.policyalternatives.ca>.

A webpage which you can read or even participate in the co-creation of, Kamloops Urban Hen Movement Website is located at: http://www.campusclimatenetwork.org/wiki/Urban_Hen_Movement

Making Environment Policy in Ottawa: Innovative Solutions and Decisive Action
Free public talk

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
7:00 PM
Room OM2621
Old Main Building
Thompson Rivers University

Speaker Nathan Cullen is MP for Skeena-Bulkley Valley & NDP Environment Critic

Sponsored by Thompson Rivers University New Democratic Party Student Club

Money is filth, rotten, scourge of the planet. The root of all evil and the thief of compassion, this carrot correctly dangled will lure even the most hardcore activist from her original goals and connive her into a conventional life of greed.

True or false?

It’s true that some money supports war and weapons, and true that money tricks some of us into disregarding environmental concerns, but can money be just as easily used for good? Indeed, whether a person has nothing extra, cash to spare, or a tidy savings account, options abound.

“I can’t help –I have nothing to spare!”

No extra cash? Your usual grocery and household purchases can make a difference. Citizens Bank of Canada offers a credit card ensuring that a portion of every card purchase goes to a good cause. “Every time you use your Shared Interest VISA, Citizens Bank puts 10¢ into a donations pool to support not-for-profit initiatives aimed at effecting positive social, economic and environmental change. As a member, you have a say in how the money is directed towards the issues that are important to you. Members can suggest which groups or issues the money should support by casting their votes.” There is also a card to specifically support Amnesty International.

“I don’t have oodles, but I’ve got a bit of room in my budget.”

With cash, we can actively support organic farming by purchasing its produce. Print on only 100% post-consumer recycled paper. Donations, or the purchase of ad space, can support alternative media, like SOUND. You can also help out by sponsoring education or supplies for low-income activists and groups.

“I don’t need all of my money right now, and I feel guilty about this but I want to hang onto it for emergencies.”

Guilt not! Hoarding your cash in ethical options lets you have your cake –and someone else to have theirs, too. Basically, you put your savings into a specific type of account. The bank in turn loans that money to projects, charging them a very low interest rate. When your investment period is up, you get your money –plus interest– back. (Depending on the account you choose, you can also get it back whenever you need it, but without the bonus money.)

A win-win solution, VanCity’s Shared Growth Term Deposits have recently helped provide housing for people in addiction recovery, supported a program to reduce the number of cars on Vancouver roads, aided pregnancy support for at-risk women, reinforced eco-forestry, and more. Meanwhile, their Shared World Term Deposit supports families in the majority world to build more sustainable lives, usually through self-employment. Other organizations (see action, below) allow one to make direct loans to people in need.

Indeed, there are many options for the compassionate person to use money for good. Over the past several years, ethical purchasing and investing has become a viable answer to some of our world’s most critical issues.

August 2006
SOUND

Earthcare Kamloops presents:
Vegetarian Potluck Sunday, April 27, 2008
5:30 PM doors open, dinner at 6pm
At the Community Living Centre : 520D Seymour Street
All are welcome!

PLEASE BRING:
Vegetarian or vegan dish to feed 8
The recipe for your dish or at least list of ingredients
Your own plate, cutlery and cup
Suggested donation of $3 per adult (more or less as able)

Following dinner, Bruce Stevens will present “The Art of Composting”

*Earthcare Kamloops is a group of caring citizens who promote a plant based diet, and support sustainable,
local farming practices. We strive to create a more connected and healthier community by discussing
environmental and health issues at our monthly potluck.

Please contact Erin at earthsavekamloops@yahoo.ca until April 30th, then we will have a new email. We are
in transition; our new group will be Earthcare Kamloops. Our format will be the same, and always the
last Sunday of the month September to May. We changed our name because we could not comply with Earthsave Canadas’ criteria for a vegan-only potluck.

Free public talk : The economic consequences of war

Friday, May 2nd, 2008
7:00 PM
Society for Community Living Centre, 520d Seymour St (just behind Movie Mart)

Speaker Ingo Schimdt is a Labour Relations professor at Athabasca University and affiliate BC Labour Against War.

For more information, call 374-3234.