Eric Nordal launches SocialCoast.org to create an activist alliance that could help social, anti-poverty groups connect
Eric Nordal has launched a Victoria-based online gathering place for community groups and organizations to share ideas and resources with one another, as well as collaborate on campaigns and events. He says that various social movements that “seem very separate are actually connected in a lot of ways.”
We speak with Eric Nordal about SocialCoast.org. (more…)
Raise the Rates says MLAs accepting the challenge would be engaging in real action research and gain understanding
Anti-poverty activists are challenging British Columbia’s elected provincial MLAs to take a challenge and live on $610 a month—the amount they expect many individuals living on welfare payments to get by with. But they’re only suggesting the well-paid politicians live for one month on an amount that is described by Jean Swanson as “keeping people in dire, dire poverty.”
The coalition wants welfare rates increased to the equivalent of what they were in 1986. The $700 a month a person might have received in 1986 would amount to about $1,300 today, over double the current rate. The group also wants inflation taken into consideration when rates are set. (more…)
A group of people diagnosed with schizophrenia conducted research about housing and its impacts on mental health
The struggle for housing stability is among the many challenges faced by people with schizophrenia. That struggle was the focus of a participatory action research project led by professor Barbara Schneider at the University of Calgary.
Participatory research involves members of a community group in meaningful participation in all stages of the research process, including developing the research question, gathering the data, analyzing the data, and disseminating and using the results. (more…)
A candid account of one person’s transgender experience, grounded in faith, pilgrimage, and hope
“In from the Wilderness” is the story of a transgender man who has been an ordained elder in The United Methodist Church since 1984 and has quietly served his congregations for twenty-eight years before sharing his story and spiritual journey with his congregation, denomination, and the world.
Rev. David Weekley stepped into the pulpit of the Epworth United Methodist Church in Portland, Oregon, on August 30, 2009, to share his story for the first time. When he finished his message, the congregation burst into applause. Now, David shares his story in a new book from Wipf and Stock Publishers. (more…)
Faith groups ask that Liberal and NDP leadership candidates explain homelessness, housing positions
The Vancouver Interfaith Alliance to End Homelessness is calling on leadership candidates from B.C.’s NDP and Liberal parties to declare a commitment to end homelessness in BC by 2015. The Alliance is a non-partisan group whose members include over 60 diverse faith leaders representing community-based churches, mosques, temples, synagogues and spiritual centres from across Vancouver.
A letter delivered last week invited all leadership candidates to respond and make their positions clear. Responses to that letter will be made public this week. (more…)
Christian faith leaders endorse and sign letter to PM opposing plan to send more Canadians to prison
Christian churches across Canada are being asked by an advocacy group to tell the federal Conservative government that they don’t want to pay for its prison-based justice agenda. The Church Council on Justice and Corrections is a national faith-based coalition involved in education, advocacy and community development initiatives to foster healthier communities and crime prevention through social responsibility. (more…)
