Victoria’s Read

This story is one of a series of stories that will be shared during a poverty awareness event that will be hosted by Nipissing University’s Mentorship Program and the North Bay Parent Advisory Committee.  The evening will be a blend of live music, performances by NUSU Students on Stage and a dance piece – all geared toward raising awareness about poverty.  It will take place on the evening of February 4th and is open to the public.

For more information, please email mentor@nipissingu.ca or call 474-3450 ext. 4241.

Rachel’s Story: 
Working to Survive

If someone had told me ten years ago that I would raise my children in poverty, I would have laughed at them. I mean, I graduated high school, attended college and was making something of my life. I’ve always worked. My husband and I have 2 beautiful daughters. We both work. We don’t have Ontario Works (OW), Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) or anything else. Everything we make is earned the old fashioned way, by hard work and integrity but we still struggle everyday to make ends meet.  Does this make us bad parents or bad people?  I think not. One day we will find our way out or at least, we hope we will. We’ve already made leaps and bounds from where we were 2 years ago. We’re doing it on our own. We’ve realized in that time, that everyone needs help sometimes.

We are not users or wasters. We do it on our own, when we can. Hand ups are accepted when needed and passed back in thanks to others who need it. We get only what we need, when we need it. Every penny is counted and saved when it can be. Sometimes I would like to give my children more but they are healthy, happy and loved. That’s what truly matters.

I can see that more and more minimum wage jobs are taken by average college and university grads – like me; People, who have worked their entire life towards a goal but find a lack of employment in their chosen field, people with the best laid plans, who somehow wind up living in poverty.

When many people think of poverty, they think of people on OW. Their first (unrealistic and over-generalized) thought is that these people are using the system and that tax payers are paying for it.  They paint all people who access OW with the same stereotype-tainted brush, meanwhile they don’t think of us, the working poor who are trying our best to provide for our families.
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f you had asked me 10 years ago what poverty was, I would have had nothing to share. Now, sadly, I know far too well what it truly is.