Some renters are in real need of help to face systemic barriers that make finding housing difficult
Ready to Rent B.C. was established when a group of housing and service-related agencies came together to find ways of helping families both find—and keep—their housing. The Victoria-based organization works closely with both service providers and housing providers to support people in finding solutions to their own housing needs. (more…)
HIV and AIDS have been with us for thirty years but stigma and its effects continue to create harm
VICTORIA, BC—While this year’s UNAIDS World AIDS Day theme, ‘Getting to Zero’, aims to achieve zero new HIV infections and zero AIDS deaths, it is the goal of getting to zero stigma that is often hardest to attain. Advancements in treatment and broader access to testing have made the first two ‘zero’ goals within reach on Vancouver Island. However, for a coalition of storytellers who are living with HIV in the capital region, stigma remains a harmful and dominant force. (more…)
Columbian Centre’s People First Radio media-based education initiative is about to enter its seventh year with new leadership
People First Radio, an initiative offered by Nanaimo’s Columbian Centre—in partnership with the Radio Malaspina Society—marks six years on the air this week. The “program about people, the society in which we live, and issues related to health and wellness” was conceived by Columbian’s executive director Tom Grauman and then put into motion by co-presenters Kevin Midbo and Jan Coleman. (more…)
Negative connotations surrounding projects can make things difficult, says Nanaimo Affordable Housing Society executive director Jim Spinelli
Jim Spinelli doesn’t like the term ‘low-barrier housing,’ despite his 17-year involvement with finding affordable housing for local residents.
In his work with the Nanaimo Affordable Housing Society it’s sometimes a struggle to get public acceptance for the housing projects he has been involved with. Part of the problem, he said, is the negative connotation of such terminology.
No rental housing will refuse people on the basis of their drug or alcohol use, so the term is somewhat misleading, said Spinelli. Read the rest of this story at Nanaimo Daily News…
Columnist Mitchell Anderson writes that along with Rob Ford, Canada’s political leadership has hit rock bottom while ‘dumbing down democracy’
Fresh from the reality TV spectacle of the Senate scandals, Canadians have been offered a new series, the Rob Ford crack cocaine video saga. But there haven’t been resignations in shame or hasty retreats to “spend more time” with one’s family. The response seems to be ‘nothing to see here…move on.’ Rob Ford, for example, has said, “I have no reason to resign.” His popularity, meanwhile, seems to actually have increased. (more…)
Weight bias among health professionals influences quality of health care for people with obesity, finds University of Alberta obesity researcher
EDMONTON—Five days after undergoing gastric bypass surgery to reduce the size of her stomach and lose weight, Adrianna O’Regan knew something was wrong. She became violently ill and could not even keep down water.
But when she went to a local hospital, she was refused admission by a triage nurse who said her illness was her body’s way of telling her she needed to lose weight. Undeterred, O’Regan saw her surgeon the next day and learned her bowel had blown up like a balloon—a complication that, if left untreated, would have been fatal. (more…)
