Drop In Participants Voice their Concerns to City Council

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We elect officials to represent the needs of our communities. Many of us attend Town Halls, have written to or called our elected officials, or signed a petition, to alert them to something important in our community. But when you are focused on just getting through the day and finding a place to sleep, you don’t have the same way to express concerns. So this municipal election, Drop In Participant Volunteers conducted a survey of Participants to record what they want to see City Council work on this year. The results are in!

Why this survey?

We wanted to inspire and encourage Drop In Participants to be active and to use their voices in the municipal election! Volunteer Participants were recruited and trained to be peer leaders and get people excited about the election. They created a survey to collect opinions from participants about what is most important to them to share with our local elected City Councillor.

How was the survey created?

The survey was designed by Drop In Participant Volunteers, and asked the question:

“What are Your Top Three Priorities You Want the Elected Mayor and Councillors to Take Action?”

Who responded to the survey?

The respondents are the participants who come to our Drop-in Centre for services and supports on a regular basis. The survey was anonymous and participants had a week to respond. We collected 76 surveys!

Survey Results

Participants identified 17 topics that were important to them

  • Priority #1: Housing: 17 surveys indicated housing as priority number one.
  • Priority #2: Low-cost Housing: 14 surveys indicated Low-cost housing as priority number two.
  • Priority #3: Homelessness: 8 surveys indicated homelessness as priority number three.
  • Other topics which were identified included:
    o   The need to increase Social Assistance
    o   The cost of Public Transit
    o   More Public Transit
    o   More green space
    o   Reduce the Cost of Living
    o   More support for mental health

What’s Next?

We wrote a letter to the newly elected City Councillor for Spadina-Fort York, Ausma Malik, sharing the results and inviting her for a tour of EHM and an opportunity to meet with the Participant Volunteers who made this event successful!

Collaboration and advocacy are some of the important activities that happen behind the scenes at EHM. Staff are part of many working groups and planning committees across the city where we meet with city officials and other charities to discuss solutions to these, and the many other, challenges facing EHM clients and tenants.