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November 14, 2003
Learn about community
Yad b'Yad project interviews 50 low-income members.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
So, what do you do?" may not seem like a harmful question
to ask someone you first meet. However, to someone living on a low
income, such a question can be alienating. Increased sensitivity
to and greater knowledge of such issues was one of the goals of
the Mapping and Mobilization Interview Project prepared for Yad
b'Yad – The Coalition on Poverty in the Jewish Community.
Compiled by field research co-ordinator Melissa Tapper, the project
was designed to inform Yad b'Yad and the wider Jewish community
about the direct service needs of those living on a limited income.
For Yad b'Yad chair George Mate, the importance of the report is
that this is one of the first times that something like this has
been done.
"You can count the number of times on your hand," said
Mate, "that the community in some sort of organized fashion
has gone to stakeholders, people who are actually affected by poverty
in our community, and said, 'How does this affect you, vis-a-vis
your access to the community, being on limited income?' "
For the project, 50 Jewish people living in the Lower Mainland were
interviewed between January and May 2003; 14 men and 36 women. Twenty-six
respondents were born in Canada and 31 had completed a bachelor,
master's and/or PhD degree. All of those interviewed were, or had
recently experienced, living on a limited income; nearly 80 per
cent of the respondents lived on less than $14,000 annually. Forty-two
per cent were employed either part time or full time. Seventy-five
per cent had received assistance from the community in the form
of financial or social support.
"The shocking thing in this report to me was the number of
people, for example, who have post-secondary degrees," said
Mate. "I mean, there's an assumption that if you are poor,
it's partly because you don't have education.
"What that finding says to us is that, while education is one
thing that is a factor in determining your socioeconomic status,
it's not the only thing," continued Mate. "So we have
to keep in mind that there are other catastrophic issues that have
occurred for people who may have had good education, yet still find
themselves in that desperate situation."
Shanie Levin, a volunteer who sits on the marketing and communications
committee of the Coalition, agreed with Mate. To her, the most important
findings were not only the high educational level of the majority
of respondents, but the high per- centage who are the working poor.
"That the number of Jews on limited incomes is higher than
that of the general population and that the number of Jews in the
highest income brackets is higher than that of the general population"
were also of note, said Levin.
Four main questions guided the project:
1. What are the fundamental service needs of Jewish individuals
and families living on limited incomes?
2. What are the perceived barriers to accessing these services and
resources at the present time?
3. What changes in attitudes need to be made among agency boards
and policies in order to break down these barriers?
4. What are the suggested solutions for improving or expanding the
range and types of services provided by the Jewish community?
While not a scientific report – as the respondents were a self-selected
group, meaning that people chose to be interviewed, rather than
being a random sample – there were insights gained from the
process.
According to the report, interviewees overwhelmingly expressed happiness
with the care and warmth of the community assistance they received.
However, most of the respondents noted that their financial situation
affected their association with the community – they could
not afford to attend certain social or educational events, for example.
As well, more than half of the respondents saw the community as
being "socially tiered" or "exclusive."
While many people who have been associated with the Coalition feel
like this report reveals some novel conclusions, for Mate, the report
is "a confirmation of what people who have been sensitive to
these issues have already believed, which is, if you don't have
money in our community, it's difficult for you to access community,
because it is not cheap to be Jewish and to be a part of the community."
The report's results won't "turn the community on its ear,"
he said. "It's just another step in trying to convince people
in our community who are not so sensitive to these issues that we
have a real problem."
The report's recommendations fall into the categories of accessibility,
inclusion, perception and affordability.
With regard to accessibility, the project recommends provision of
bus tickets to get to and from community activities and the holding
of activities at different locations outside of the Oak Street corridor.
As well, it concludes, people would feel more included if agencies
and organizations were more welcoming and community members with
businesses provided more opportunities for work mentorship programs
and employment. The report also suggests the creation of a community
drop-in room at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver.
To make being Jewish more affordable, the report recommends access
to events/services at a reduced cost and the need for community/synagogue
events to be offered on a sliding scale. It also said that the JCC
should inform the community about subsidized memberships.
To improve perceptions, the report notes a need for diversity training
for service providers and community leaders, as the community has
become increasingly diverse in terms of language, place of origin,
family type, sexual orientation and financial resources. There is
also the need for broader education for organizations and agencies
about how to enlist the resources and abilities of low-income members
of the community. Finally, a change of attitudes regarding the economic
stratification of the Jewish community is deemed necessary, with
information dissemination being an effective way to achieve this.
"Yad b'Yad has chosen three priorities to [address] within
the community this year," said Mate.
"We want to try to move the community toward a central assessment
mechanism where a family comes forward, they are assessed once and,
based on that assessment, we as a community say to them, this is
the degree to which the community can help you."
The second is to move some kind of transportation initiative forward
to assist people in accessing the community more easily. And the
third is to try and encourage more community activity in areas such
as the West End, for example.
Levin echoed these priorities, stressing the need for the "dissemination
of the information in the report through contacts with individuals
and groups in the Jewish community to raise awareness of the results."
The Mapping and Mobilization study was funded by two gifts, one
from Melanie Gold, Ted Zacks, Peter Krivel-Zacks and Juliet Zacks
and the other from the Risa and Bill Levine Family Philanthropic
Fund. For more information, call 604-257-5100.
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