There was an approximately 10 per cent drop in the demand for food hampers in the Nanaimo Christmas Hamper Program this year. The program, also called Hamperville, is run jointly by the Loaves Fishes food bank and the Salvation Army and has been helping to supply food to the area’s less fortunate during the Christmas season for 11 years.   Read this story at Nanaimo Daily News…

Nanaimo social workers are bracing for an anticipated surge of demand from the homeless and hard-to-house with the arrival of winter in coastal B.C. The thermometer plunged to -3 C overnight Monday, with a low of -6 C forecast overnight this morning, pushing temperatures down into the lower end of the normal winter range for Vancouver Island.  Read the rest of this story at Nanaimo Daily News…

audio: PFR greeting card show in full – season's greetings – on hiatus until Jan 5 #Nanaimo http://t.co/vSawZD70ep pic.twitter.com/3u8kniJM4F

— peoplefirstradio (@peoplefirstrad) December 18, 2014

The holiday spirit is catching on. In this video, hear how Canadians have embraced giving back during this season. How will you make charitable giving part of your holiday tradition?

Ian M. Kysel in The New York Times — Solitary confinement can be psychologically damaging for any inmate, but it is especially perverse when it is used to discipline children and teenagers. At juvenile detention centers and adult prisons and jails across the [United States], minors are locked in isolated cells for 22 hours or more a day. Solitary confinement is used to punish misbehavior, to protect vulnerable detainees or to isolate someone who may be violent or suicidal. But this practice does more harm than good. It should end.  Read the rest of this article at The New York Times…

RELATED | The Canadian government has faced widespread calls to limit its use of solitary confinement. The government rejected those calls. 

#Nanaimo supportive housing development sees first tenants inside http://t.co/r70TBDl9tO pic.twitter.com/89XZMnUUwg

— peoplefirstradio (@peoplefirstrad) December 16, 2014