Community Town Halls for Working Together Initiative
As part of IRIS’ Working Together initiative, Community Town Halls are being held in four cities across Canada: Regina, Saint John, Vancouver, and Toronto. Community Town Hall Dates and Times: Regina, SK – March 21, 2016 at 5pm Saint John, NB – March 30, 2016 at 6-8pm Toronto, ON – April 13, 2016 at 6-9pm Vancouver, BC – April … Continued
Working Together – Combating Structural Violence: Video
IRIS has started an exciting new initiative that brings together migrant, indigenous and women with disabilities in four communities in Canada; Saint John, New Brunswick; Toronto, Ontario; Regina, Saskatchewan; and Vancouver, B.C. to work together in addressing structural violence in the communities in which they live. In November 2015 IRIS held a national meeting in … Continued
IRIS Launches New Project: Working Together – Combating Structural Violence
Women in Canada come from many diverse backgrounds and live with multiple experiences of marginalization and with each layer of exclusion, whether that is migrant, indigenous or disability status – other barriers to their safety are added. Consequently, particular populations of women experience higher rates of abuse than other women’s communities due to structural violence … Continued
Legal Capacity, A Fundamental Right
Open Society Fellow, and Managing Director of the Institutes for Research and Development on Inclusion and Society Michael Bach, talks about how “supported decision making” can allow those of us with disabilities to contribute to and participate more fully in society. The full story can be found here and in the video below.
New Publication – Six Key Elements for an Inclusive Labour Market
There is a growing recognition among employers, governments, and the public at large of the valuable contributions that people with disabilities bring to Canadian workplaces. At the same time, concerns about skills shortages and labour market supply issues have been a dominant theme of Canadian and international policy discussion. A recent report of the federal … Continued
New Report: Looking Into Poverty
Looking Into Poverty: Income Sources of Poor People with Disabilities in Canada, provides a detailed look at amounts of income that poor people with and without disabilities obtain from employment and from fourteen non-employment income sources. These include social assistance, the Canada and Quebec Pension Plan, private pensions and investments, spousal and child support and … Continued
The Employment of People with Disabilities: What’s Working?
Under the Labour Market Agreements for Persons with Disabilities (LMAPDs), the federal government continues to share with the provinces the cost of programs that seek to improve the employment prospects of people with disabilities. While there have been improvements in the employment sector since the early 2000s, there is still a long way to go … Continued
No More PALS, Now What?
Statistics Canada’s Participation and Activity Limitation Survey (PALS) of 2001 and 2006 was built on the predecessor Health and Activity Limitation Survey (HALS) of 1986 and 1991. These ‘flagship’ surveys on disability established a kind of international ‘gold standard’ for gathering and reporting statistical data on disability. In 2011, the Minister of Human Resources and … Continued
Transforming Communities through Social Development
Social development is the process of organizing human energies and activities at higher levels to achieve greater results. There are two key components of social development: Learning and application Society discovers better ways to fulfill its aspirations and develops mechanisms to translate knowledge to achieve its social and economic goals. What does that mean in … Continued