Ontario’s Community Social Services are non-profit organizations that empower and provide opportunities to all Ontarians to be productive members of our society.
How? By readying people for the labour force. By helping youth stay in school and steering them away from trouble. By providing new immigrants language training and settlement services so they can successfully integrate. By helping our seniors remain healthy and living independently at home and out of costly institutional care. And by giving families the supports they need to navigate tough times.
But just when Ontarians most need these supports, community social service agencies are struggling to balance their own budgets. More than a decade of cutbacks or minimal increases in government funding, combined with 23% inflation over this period, has put community agencies’ abilities to meet the increasing demand in services in peril.
If the Ontario government is serious about reducing poverty and preparing the economy for recovery, it will need help from organizations that work with communities and people every day. We stand ready to help. But we need the appropriate resources to get the job done well.
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Protect Ontario Communities is a project of the Community Social Services Campaign, a partnership between Community Social Services and Labour. For more information about the campaign visit www.socialplanningtoronto.org/cssc/
Making the commitment necessary to provide opportunity for all Ontarians
Ontarians need the services provided by community social service agencies, and times have never been more critical. Despite years of strong economic growth, many Ontario families are struggling with lower wages, higher housing costs, and increased poverty, all getting rapidly worse in the economic downturn.
From the Margins to the Mainstream explains the steps necessary for the Ontario government to reduce poverty, increase opportunity and improve equity through investment in the services that support a healthy Ontario.
Read the report in PDF Format | Word Format
Current Conditions and Promising Reforms to Strengthen Ontario’s Nonprofit Community Services Sector
The community nonprofit sector in Ontario works hard every day to assist people and communities in need. But a decade of underfunding and under-resourcing has left this sector in peril. This report, authored by Peter Clutterbuck and Rob Howarth for the Community Social Services Campaign and the Community Social Planning Council of Toronto, focuses on the "perfect storm" of trends that have created these conditions, and what we can do to improve conditions.
Read the Report | Executive Summary [PDF Format]