Get the Ontario COVID-19 Child Benefit

 The following post has been extracted from the Ontario Government Ministry of Education link: Get the Ontario COVID-19 Child Benefit

The Ontario COVID-19 Child Benefit provides financial support to families with young learners to help with additional costs during the COVID-19covid 19 pandemic.

If you received a payment through the Support for Learners program, you do not need to apply for this additional payment.

However, if you applied for Support for Learners but did not receive your payment by April 23, you will not automatically receive payment under the Ontario COVID-19 Child Benefit. In this case, you will need to apply for it.

Applications will open from May 3, 2021 to May 17, 2021.

This new round of payment through the Ontario COVID-19 Child Benefit is in addition to payments provided by Support for Families and the Support for Learners programs.

If you did not apply for Support for Learners

If you missed applying for the Support for Learners program, you will have the opportunity to apply for the new payment through the Ontario COVID-19 Child Benefit.
Applications will open from May 3, 2021 to May 17, 2021.

Only one parent or guardian will be able to apply for each child. The parent or guardian should have custody of the child. This could include a parent or guardian with shared custody. It is up to the child's parents or guardians to determine who will apply.

If you are a secondary student over the age of 18, you can apply on your own, or one of your parents or guardians can apply for you.

Eligibility
You can apply if you live in Ontario and are a:

• parent or guardian to a child or youth up to Grade 12
• secondary school student over the age of 18
• parent or guardian to a child or youth that is 21 or younger and has special needs

For more information go to: Get the Ontario COVID-19 Child Benefit

Ontario Workers Need Paid Sick Leave

 

PAID SICK LEAVE FOR ONTARIO WORKERS.

Medical experts, labour activists and scientists all agree that the fact most workers do not have easy access to paid sick leave is a major contributor to the spread of COVID-19 in Ontario workplaces.

Sign this petition demanding paid sick leave for workers.

Paid Sick Days Ontario

Reprinted from the Advocacy Newsletter of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul

 

Automatic Income Tax Filing

 Reprinted from the Advocacy Newsletter of our Ontario Regional Council

AUTOMATIC INCOME TAX FILING. In order to receive the Canada Child Benefit, GST rebates and most other government benefits, people must file an income tax return. Due to uncertainty and cost, many of our neighbours in need fail to file in a timely manner. They miss out on valuable income to which they are entitled that could help alleviate their poverty. In the last Speech from the Throne the government promised to provide free automatic tax filing for simple returns. Many other jurisdictions have implemented this policy in an attempt to help people who are living in poverty. Vincentians can ensure that this reform does not fall through the cracks by contacting their Members of Parliament with this simple message: I urge you to support and work towards implementing automatic free tax filing as promised in the last Speech from the Throne. This measure will help many low income Canadians automatically receive the benefits to which they are entitled. Find contact info for your MP easily using your Postal Code: contact your MP

The 2020 Christmas Program

Due to the pandemic you will see some changes in how we are able to run our programs this year.  We want to continue to bring joy and ease to the many in our community who struggle throughout the year and especially at Christmas, but we must do so with the pandemic restrictions in mind. 

For the Christmas Program that serves our families, your donation will continue to go towards the purchase of grocery gift cards for parents and gift cards from a local store so that parents can purchase a gift for the children in their family.

For the Giving Tree Program we will not be able to distribute stars and accept gifts to be given to the various homes and residences due to the restrictions of the pandemic.  Instead, we will be accepting monetary donations that we will use to purchase gift cards for those living in group homes and to purchase select gifts that will be delivered to the assisted-living homes for them to wrap and distribute. This is both to keep our volunteers safe and especially those more vulnerable people living in the homes. 

You can donate via Canada Helps at www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/42029.

Even under the current pandemic situation, your gift will still make a difference in the lives of those often left out at this special time of year.  A donation of $20.00 might purchase a pair of warm pajamas or some slippers for a senior in need. A $40.00 donation might purchase a special toy for a child that hasn’t had a new toy since last Christmas.   A donation of $60.00 may go towards food in the fridge for a single mother trying to make ends meet. 

Any amount helps spread the joy and magic of Christmas to those in our community who need our help. We thank you for your continued support and prayers.

If you wish to make an online donation towards our Christmas and Giving Tree programs please click the DONATE button below.

Precarious Work, Vulnerable Workers and COVID-19

 

Image credit: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk

Precarious Work, Vulnerable Workers and COVID-19


 

Precarious work is a term used to describe certain types of employment, usually, but not always, non-standard or temporary. It is precarious precisely because it is insecure and unprotected, it pays poorly and unreliably, and provides very limited or no social benefits and statutory entitlements.

People who are dependent on precarious work employment for their income find it extremely challenging to support a household and often need to take two or even three such jobs in their efforts to make ends meet. Such people are justifiably termed, "vulnerable workers".

Resurrection, Not Resuscitation

Following is an extract from a reflection on last Sunday's readings by Stephen Bevans, SVD and
Louis J. Luzbetak, SVD of the Catholic Theological Union. The Gospel was Matthew 14:13-21, the feeding of the multitude.

It is the generous extravagance and abundance of “the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” that we need to keep in mind in this trying, difficult, almost unbearable time in our lives. We are in that “deserted place” and it is “already late.” If you are like me, it’s not just the COVID-19 pandemic that is terrifying — and that is terrifying enough. It is the racism and hatred that has revealed itself, the shocking individualism that is prolonging the agony of these months, the painful call (for some of us — liberating for others!) to revise our history and our heroes, the dangerous disregard for science and real wisdom that is harming an entire generation. It is the disregard for human lives, especially Black lives today, that is making us pant with thirst. It is a refusal to see the harm we are causing to our planet, and to future generations of plants and animals and human children, that is making us faint with hunger. We desperately need the love of God in Jesus to feed us with hope, with compassion, with patience, with perseverance.

Why does God Let this Happen?

Dorothy Day in 1934

Why does God Let this Happen?

(Covid 19 Reflection #5)

This reflection, written by Denise Bondy, Chair of the ONRC Spirituality Committee, is curated from the SSVP Ontario member site "Spirituality Corner"
 https://members.ssvp.on.ca/en/thoughts.php

God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good.
(Genesis 1:31)

The poor you will always have with you.
(Matthew 26: 11)

As I write this, some of Ontario is in Stage 3 of the covid 19 re-opening plan while the rest of us remain in Stage 2. It’s becoming a long, long summer.

Laudato Si’ Day 1 - #246 A prayer for our earth

Firstly, simply read what the pope wrote. Then read it again, finding and reflecting on a word, phrase or sentence that stands out the most to you. With a third reading, prayerfully and with a listening heart, tell the Lord how you feel about what you read and why: Frustration? Encouragement? Helplessness? Resolve? Whatever. Allow time for silence and simply being present to God’s Presence. Conclude by praying the prayer again, simply and quietly.
Don’t focus only on the prayer itself. Consider also what the Pope is saying in the introduction to the prayer.

#246. At the conclusion of this lengthy reflection which has been both joyful and troubling, I propose that we offer two prayers. The first we can share with all who believe in a God who is the all-powerful Creator, while in the other we Christians ask for inspiration to take up the commitment to creation set before us by the Gospel of Jesus.

How are we operating under COVID-19 conditions?

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in governments the world over imposing restrictions on society's social contacts with varying degrees of strictness resulting in hardship for everyone, but particularly the poor, the vulnerable, and those already isolated and alone - the very people to whom the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is called to assist.

In Easter message, Pope Francis proposes universal basic income

The following is reprinted from  the Jesuit review, "America", under the title: In Easter message, Pope Francis proposes universal basic income by Kevin Clarke. (Italics and emphases have been added by me.)

Image credit: www.americamagazine.org

In a remarkable Easter Sunday letter to members of social movements around the world, Pope Francis, noting that the widespread suffering caused by the global coronavirus pandemic does not fall evenly, suggested that the crisis warranted the establishment of a universal basic income. He described it also as an opportunity for affluent societies to “downshift” and re-evaluate patterns of consumption and exploitation.

“This may be the time to consider a universal basic wage which would acknowledge and dignify the noble, essential tasks you carry out,” Pope Francis wrote. “It would ensure and concretely achieve the ideal, at once so human and so Christian, of no worker without rights.” (In the original text, the pope used an expression, “el salario universal,” that is typically used in Spanish to refer to the universal basic income.)

MESSAGE CONCERNING THE PANDEMIC - By Archbishop Emeritus Sylvain Lavoie OMI

MESSAGE CONCERNING THE PANDEMIC

- By Archbishop Emeritus Sylvain Lavoie OMI

  National Spiritual Advisor

Archbishop Emeritus Sylvain Lavoie OMI

Along with all the directives and information that have already been sent out by our Vincentian leadership, and on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the martyrdom of St. Oscar Romero, I would like to add a brief reflection on this present Corona virus Covid-19 crisis.

Apparently, the word “crisis” in Chinese has two possible meanings – “escape” or “opportunity,” and it is up to us to determine which of these two meanings will characterize our response. I know it is the latter, which invites us to explore how best to realize that option.

The spiritual writer Jean-Pierre de Caussade, author of Abandonment to Divine Providence, advises living in the present moment, accepting obstacles with love and humility, and encountering God in our day-to-day activities. He also asserts everything which happens is in some sense God’s will, perhaps best expressed by the certitude that God can and does turn everything to the good for those who love God.