Call to action

Now we know. Life, for many in Prince Edward County, is tough. A struggle every day. Too many families among us rely on foodbanks because there is little left over after paying heating, electrical and rent bills. Nearly half of County residents say it is a challenge to get around—to visit the doctor, the pharmacy and the grocery store.

The high school drop out rate in the County is 12 percentage points higher than the provincial average. Worse, nearly half of young people in the County don’t feel part of the community in which they live. It is a troubling picture.

The Vital Signs report, prepared by the County Community Foundation in 2013, provided a window onto the County—a disturbing view that differs greatly from those in brochures and websites or in glib and silly stories about this community that arise from time to time in Toronto newspapers.

The Vital Signs report, and the conversations that followed, illuminated challenges many may have thought were problems elsewhere, not here in County.

It pointed to the particularly acute challenges facing young working families, who must juggle daycare, transportation expenses and escalating utility bills and housing costs before they visit the grocery store. Too many are just a work disruption or unexpected expense away from needing the foodbank to feed their families.

The Vital Signs report shone a light on the hardship faced by many of the County’s seniors living on fixed incomes, who are forced to parcel out life a few dollars at a time—quietly and desperately hanging on to the only home they have ever known. One by one, simple pleasures are forgone, either because their savings have been drained or because they don’t want to impose on friends and family, until it is an emergency. So bit by bit, their world shrinks. Quietly and out of sight.

The Vital Signs report also showed us the tough circumstances many young people endure in this community. It revealed that the safety net for our youth is threadbare. If for any number of reasons our children are unable to stay on the track of education and career—their prospects in the County are bleak. Low-skilled jobs tend to be seasonal. And while skills training is available, transportation and childcare costs pose an insurmountable hurdle for many.

The Vital Signs report started a difficult conversation. Yet it helped to buoy those who had waged lonely campaigns for decades to mitigate the impact of these challenges upon the seniors, families and children in our midst.

The report also helped to direct new energy and resources toward efforts solving some of these challenges. For the County Community Foundation, it has served to focus activities and heighten resolve. It has forged working, functional partnerships with more than 60 community agencies, bringing relief, tools and hope to families across the County.

But donors and contributors have not followed as quickly. It remains a struggle for the Foundation to attract the dollars it needs to tackle these issues effectively.

Over the past few years, the Foundation has quietly assembled the skills, tools, partnerships and capacity to address the hardships of working families, seniors and young people in our community. However, they need our help in the form of donations and contributions.

Next week, the County Community Foundation is set to release an update to the Vital Signs report. It will feature current data, a progress report and a clear path forward to address challenges in transportation, food security and learning in the County. It is also a call to action.

We now know what the challenges are. The question remains: What will we do about it?

rick@wellingtontimes.ca