Leadership Summit on Poverty Reduction

Keynote speaker Mark Chamberlain, chair of the Hamilton Roundtable on Poverty Reduction described poverty reduction in Halton at the Halton Regional Centre in Oakville. The event was reported in the Milton Champion Tuesday November 30th on the front page. In Halton 8.5% of the population lies under the poverty line. Halton Hills Councillor Clark Somerville commented on the 'living the math' exercise; saying that they couldn't make it work in trying to devise a monthly budget based on a single income that a single person receives on Ontario Works if $561.

Salvation Army Kettle Drive

The Salvation Army commence their Kettle Drive through the week located at Wal-mart, Loblaw, Metro, Milton Mall and La Rose bakery on Saturday. Whatever is raised in Milton stays in Milton they state. All money goes to the operation of the Food Bank.

First snow

Milton had its first snowfall of this winter season this morning, a light flurry but an important time to reflect on the fact that not all residence of Milton have somewhere warm and dry to sleep each night

Halton Women's Place fundraiser

Wednesday November 17th 6.30pm @ Boston Pizza, 1085 Maple Ave there will be a fundraising dinner in support of Halton Women's Place, the regions only shelter for abused women and their children. Proceeds will be directed to Halton Women's Place, which last year helped 800 women and 1000 children. See the Milton Champion or contact Carm Bozzo cbozzo@halton-womensplace.com. Tickets $20 to receive a buffet dinner and bid in the silent auction.

Salvation Army gearing up for holiday hamper drive

This was the page 2 headline in the Milton Champion, Tuesday November 9th 2010. The article by Christina Commisso reports that the need is up as much as 10% this winter season. About 100 families have already put their names down with the Salvation Army to receive hampers including toys and food. A need for youth aged 110-16 is already apparent according to the interview with Angela Hunt from the Salvation Army. To register as a volunteer for Christmas kettle program and food drive visit www.khicommunity.com or call 9058751022.

Jail is not a solution for our homelessness problem

The 'Homeless Hub newsletter' website ran a recent story entitled 'jail is not a solution for our homelessness problem'. The article is by Stephen Gaetz. Visit the homeless hub website at http://getrevealed.bm23.com/public/?q=preview_message&fn=Link&t=1&ssid=9815&id=2xs4y5vsvsm9gcqiox39nrvmtz8uh&id2=0kvt1rwfgcyc529rynfaguaxkkllo&subscriber_id=aezpyxmyhsufynvttceikoxlwufxbfe&messageversion_id=bpcvnboghyabaxfvjkqwzpostwltbdp&delivery_id=baxspmcipgnqonipxkcoyemzgqvkbae&tid=3.Jlc.BIUCRw.B7B4.JzVi..Kizx.b..s.veQ.a.TMc6jA.TMc-4A.YZBmWA

"When we talk about the Canadian response to homelessness, we usually refer to things like emergency shelters, charitable food programs, drop ins and other supports. One of the things we don't talk about enough is the relationship between homelessness and criminal justice. That is, one of the central features of our response is the use of policing, courts and jails as a way of dealing with homelessness. A recently released report by the John Howard society presents a powerful indictment (if I can use court language) of this situation. In their study, Homeless and Jailed, Jailed and Homeless, the JHS research team interviewed 363 sentenced prisoners, and they uncovered some disturbing findings. For instance, I think that many Canadians would be surprised to learn that roughly one in every five prisoners was homeless immediately prior to winding up in jail."

Milton Municiple Elections

Congratulations to Mayor Gord Krantz on his landslide victory and 11th term as mayor of Milton. We welcome the newly elected ward consitituents making up the Milton Council. I hope that they are able to carry forward the same passion and resiliency demonstrated by Wendy Schau to campaign for the rights of the most needy in our community. We need each of them to accept responsibility for those in need in our community and to advocate to the Region for appropriate resource to address homelessness and provide transitional housing. Good luck - we will be watching and holding them to account.