I made a presentation on "economic accessiblity" to a public meeting on Owen Sound's proposed new arena.
defined: Economic Accessibily: Legislation exists to compel our society to address physical barriers to accessing services, buildings and programs. There is no such legislation for economic accessibility. (I developed this presentation at the request of the Mayor!)
I was making 5 reccomendations and by the time I reached the 4th one, I had to yell over top of the crowd! That's not mentioned in the article.
Poor must have access to rec centre, mayor says
my 5 reccomendations that seemed so offensive?????
Create a community based committee to focus on issues of Economic Accessibility for the proposed facility, members would consist of representation from funding partners, service providers and community representatives ensuring both economic diversity, racial diversity and gender diversity.
Limit membership based services to "lesson/class" based programming (swimming lessons, aerobics etc), public swimming, skating, card playing, single usage events etc etc would be fee-for-service
Local service providers are able to complete the administration of subsidies and offer memberships, and tickets to fee-for-service events to clients. (Children's Aid, Keystone, United Way, Credit Counselling etc)
All staff take annual training in shaming based behaviour around poverty issues, such as the Bridges Out of Poverty training program
Create a workplace environment and philosophy that focuses on providing the best options and service possible, rather than viewing subsidy applicants as and interruption in general service provision