New Project: Injury and Impact: Stories of Disability and Road Safety

DABC will create a series of short videos to raise awareness about the impacts of road accidents on people’s lives and how they adapt and continue to contribute to our communities after injury and disability. This project is generously funded by ICBC.

For more information about the project, contact Karen Martin, karen@disabilityalliancebc.therightfitbc.org

Straws and Accessibility Workshop

Do you rely on plastic straws as an adaptive aid? Will the upcoming ban on plastic straws impact you or the people your organization supports? If so, the City of Vancouver would like to hear from you.

The City is considering requiring vendors to supply bendable plastic straws for customers who need them. To better understand if this is the preferred approach, they are hosting workshops and one-on-one interviews to gather input from people who rely on straws as an adaptive a id. This is an opportunity to share your thoughts on exemptions and preferred straw types, while helping the City better understand how to improve accessibility across Vancouver as part of the straw ban. There will be a workshop at Mount Pleasant Community Centre on April 9, 2019.

The ban on plastic straws is a component of the City’s Single-Use Item Reduction Strategy and could begin as early as June 1, 2019 (pending Council approval).

For more information or to participate, contact: hello@thinkmodus.ca

Community Update: BC’s Poverty Reduction Plan Announced March 18th

Dear Community Partner,

BC’s first poverty reduction plan, announced March 18 by Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction Shane Simpson, included some more improvements to Ministry coverage and accessibility in addition to the $50 rate increase to disability and income assistance effective April 1, 2019.

The improvements include:

  • Eliminating the requirement to apply for CPP early retirement
  • Changing the definition of spouse to require 1 year instead of 3 months of living together
  • Eliminating the “transient” category so that homeless people can receive the same support and income exemptions as housed people
  • Increasing shelter-related crisis grants
  • Removing the financial penalty for paying room and board to a parent or child
  • Simplifying and shortening the process to have benefits reinstated after leaving Ministry assistance
  • Eliminating the requirement that someone must be on income assistance for 12 out of 15 months in order to apply for Persons with Persistent Multiple Barriers (PPMB).

We celebrate the wide reach of the plan, which includes expenditures for housing, health, childcare, education and training and built-in performance measurements to keep the government accountable. We encourage the government to keep moving forward and to raise the disability and income assistance rates further.