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WoodGreen is a Toronto-based agency supporting at-risk communities whose basic needs, including homelessness and healthcare, often go unmet. President and CEO, Anne Babcock and Vice President, Steve Vanderherberg, discuss key challenges communities face and ways that people can help.
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[AUDIO LOGO]
* The worst of the global pandemic may be behind us, but the economic and social impact is clearly still being felt. You may have seen signs around Toronto with the word "unmet." That's part of a campaign from WoodGreen Community Services-- one of the largest social service agencies in Toronto.
Now, one of the areas it is focusing its energy on is financial empowerment. Joining us is WoodGreen President and CEO, Anne Babcock, and Vice President Steve Vanderherberg. It is nice to have you both here.
* Thank you.
* Well, it's nice to be here.
* Let's just start with a little bit before we get to the Unmet Campaign right now and just who WoodGreen is.
* We are a full-service organization helping 37,000 Torontonians a year-- people who are unhoused, unemployed, people who are unsafe, women fleeing violence, youth, newcomers, vulnerable seniors. And every day, what we're doing is we're supporting them and ensuring that they have all the opportunities to thrive.
* I was going to ask you-- I mean, one thing that I-- and I've had the pleasure of working with WoodGreen and seeing the incredible work they've done in the past. And I know the work you did was so important, and then the pandemic happened. And for many of us that have gotten through it and we're fine, but a lot of people are much worse off than they were than when it started.
* And you're right. They really are, particularly those who are the most vulnerable. And I think the pandemic shone a light on that. The whole city saw that the most vulnerable in our city really were challenged during the pandemic, and that hasn't changed.
The current economic environment, inflation-- it's just made it so difficult for people to even survive on a daily basis. So it's getting worse. The need is there. There's so much unmet need in the city of Toronto. And that's the thing that WoodGreen's doing-- that our campaign is to raise our profile and raise the funds needed to keep addressing those unmet needs in our city.
* You talked about-- we were chatting earlier. You mentioned about just the demand on food banks and the demand on seniors lines-- just if you could give some color around that.
* Well, food banks, I know the visits are four times the number of visits that they had prior to the pandemic. That is really an indicator of some people who are challenged and are in trouble. The seniors health line is a service that we provide across the city.
Prior to the pandemic, we had about 10,000 calls on an annual basis. Well, during the pandemic and since, we're up over 50,000 calls. And that's seniors who are very vulnerable and who are very scared, alienated, lonely, and need help.
* Yeah. That's an absolutely heartbreaking number, but incredible that your team is there, at least, to field the calls that are coming in. The Unmet Campaign launched. I do want to talk about the whole campaign, but just specifically one aspect of the campaign is financial empowerment. And tell me a bit about just why that's so important and why it's one thing you're focused on.
* Yeah. So financial empowerment at WoodGreen helps low-income individuals and families with their financial issues, whether you're in a financial crisis, trying to stabilize your income, or just planning for the future. And so some of those services are filing your taxes, assessing your benefits, making sure you're getting everything you're entitled to, but also problem solving, working through issues if your benefits get cut off, all the way to 10 years of backtaxes to ensure that you're claiming all the benefits that you could have accessed.
* It's one of those things, too. It's amazing that people may not realize that filing your taxes-- I mean, no one loves paying taxes. But if you're in a situation where you have a minimal income, but it triggers benefits that you are entitled to-- but if you can't get there, you can't get the benefits. And that's what you're really helping with.
* That's right. And so there's so many benefits that are tied to having your taxes up to date. And so the recent benefits, like the Canada Housing Benefit as well as the Canada Dental Benefit, were really important, and you had to have your taxes done. But also longstanding benefits, like the Canada Child Benefit and those for seniors like Old Age Security and Guaranteed Income Supplement-- and so with those-- and if those benefits get cut off, it creates precarity for things like your housing and food and everything else because you can't afford your daily costs. And so our work is to prevent people from going into those crises, stabilize their income, and plan for the future.
* How does that actually happen? I mean, I just keep-- and I think about someone who is in circumstances where if they're worried about their next meal, filing your taxes is not high on the list. How do you help? What is the process by which people do that?
* We've done a lot of outreach. So our team is actually in libraries or in all sorts of different areas in the community. So the local people will have an opportunity in their own neighborhood to come by and get the support they need.
It happens, too, we have seniors who are shut-in. And so we have supports where we're helping personal support workers actually get the documentation to hand in to our staff and to our volunteers. And they're doing the taxes for people who haven't been doing taxes for a while and definitely need to have the benefits that come with that.
* I'm assuming there's a lot of demand for that service.
* Mm-hmm. Yeah, so the demand can be quite overwhelming, I think, because of the current climate and the pent-up need for supports. And so we have, in the last year, been able to serve over 4,000 people, which results in over $10 million back into the community. But there's such a large demand that, truthfully, it's hard to keep up with it.
* So I mean, I know the campaign's bigger than this, but part of the campaign is actually helping to find the people to actually help with the taxes, which is amazing. Tell me a bit more about the campaign, though, too, because I know it's not just that.
* No, the campaign really is to look at what are those unmet needs in the city of Toronto-- so people who are unhoused, people who are unemployed, people who are unsafe, people who are unwelcome-- so newcomers and refugees. And really, it's to shine a light on that, raise the information and the need, and then have people donate to help us continue to provide the kind of supports and services that are necessary to help address those needs.
* So if somebody is listening-- and they are-- and they're asking how they can help, tell us how to do that.
* Oh, please go to our website. Very simple-- WoodGreen.org. You'll see the campaign, and just click on the Donate Here. And that would be wonderful.
* All right. Anne, Steve, thanks so much for your time.
* Yeah, thank you.
[AUDIO LOGO]
[THEME MUSIC]
* The worst of the global pandemic may be behind us, but the economic and social impact is clearly still being felt. You may have seen signs around Toronto with the word "unmet." That's part of a campaign from WoodGreen Community Services-- one of the largest social service agencies in Toronto.
Now, one of the areas it is focusing its energy on is financial empowerment. Joining us is WoodGreen President and CEO, Anne Babcock, and Vice President Steve Vanderherberg. It is nice to have you both here.
* Thank you.
* Well, it's nice to be here.
* Let's just start with a little bit before we get to the Unmet Campaign right now and just who WoodGreen is.
* We are a full-service organization helping 37,000 Torontonians a year-- people who are unhoused, unemployed, people who are unsafe, women fleeing violence, youth, newcomers, vulnerable seniors. And every day, what we're doing is we're supporting them and ensuring that they have all the opportunities to thrive.
* I was going to ask you-- I mean, one thing that I-- and I've had the pleasure of working with WoodGreen and seeing the incredible work they've done in the past. And I know the work you did was so important, and then the pandemic happened. And for many of us that have gotten through it and we're fine, but a lot of people are much worse off than they were than when it started.
* And you're right. They really are, particularly those who are the most vulnerable. And I think the pandemic shone a light on that. The whole city saw that the most vulnerable in our city really were challenged during the pandemic, and that hasn't changed.
The current economic environment, inflation-- it's just made it so difficult for people to even survive on a daily basis. So it's getting worse. The need is there. There's so much unmet need in the city of Toronto. And that's the thing that WoodGreen's doing-- that our campaign is to raise our profile and raise the funds needed to keep addressing those unmet needs in our city.
* You talked about-- we were chatting earlier. You mentioned about just the demand on food banks and the demand on seniors lines-- just if you could give some color around that.
* Well, food banks, I know the visits are four times the number of visits that they had prior to the pandemic. That is really an indicator of some people who are challenged and are in trouble. The seniors health line is a service that we provide across the city.
Prior to the pandemic, we had about 10,000 calls on an annual basis. Well, during the pandemic and since, we're up over 50,000 calls. And that's seniors who are very vulnerable and who are very scared, alienated, lonely, and need help.
* Yeah. That's an absolutely heartbreaking number, but incredible that your team is there, at least, to field the calls that are coming in. The Unmet Campaign launched. I do want to talk about the whole campaign, but just specifically one aspect of the campaign is financial empowerment. And tell me a bit about just why that's so important and why it's one thing you're focused on.
* Yeah. So financial empowerment at WoodGreen helps low-income individuals and families with their financial issues, whether you're in a financial crisis, trying to stabilize your income, or just planning for the future. And so some of those services are filing your taxes, assessing your benefits, making sure you're getting everything you're entitled to, but also problem solving, working through issues if your benefits get cut off, all the way to 10 years of backtaxes to ensure that you're claiming all the benefits that you could have accessed.
* It's one of those things, too. It's amazing that people may not realize that filing your taxes-- I mean, no one loves paying taxes. But if you're in a situation where you have a minimal income, but it triggers benefits that you are entitled to-- but if you can't get there, you can't get the benefits. And that's what you're really helping with.
* That's right. And so there's so many benefits that are tied to having your taxes up to date. And so the recent benefits, like the Canada Housing Benefit as well as the Canada Dental Benefit, were really important, and you had to have your taxes done. But also longstanding benefits, like the Canada Child Benefit and those for seniors like Old Age Security and Guaranteed Income Supplement-- and so with those-- and if those benefits get cut off, it creates precarity for things like your housing and food and everything else because you can't afford your daily costs. And so our work is to prevent people from going into those crises, stabilize their income, and plan for the future.
* How does that actually happen? I mean, I just keep-- and I think about someone who is in circumstances where if they're worried about their next meal, filing your taxes is not high on the list. How do you help? What is the process by which people do that?
* We've done a lot of outreach. So our team is actually in libraries or in all sorts of different areas in the community. So the local people will have an opportunity in their own neighborhood to come by and get the support they need.
It happens, too, we have seniors who are shut-in. And so we have supports where we're helping personal support workers actually get the documentation to hand in to our staff and to our volunteers. And they're doing the taxes for people who haven't been doing taxes for a while and definitely need to have the benefits that come with that.
* I'm assuming there's a lot of demand for that service.
* Mm-hmm. Yeah, so the demand can be quite overwhelming, I think, because of the current climate and the pent-up need for supports. And so we have, in the last year, been able to serve over 4,000 people, which results in over $10 million back into the community. But there's such a large demand that, truthfully, it's hard to keep up with it.
* So I mean, I know the campaign's bigger than this, but part of the campaign is actually helping to find the people to actually help with the taxes, which is amazing. Tell me a bit more about the campaign, though, too, because I know it's not just that.
* No, the campaign really is to look at what are those unmet needs in the city of Toronto-- so people who are unhoused, people who are unemployed, people who are unsafe, people who are unwelcome-- so newcomers and refugees. And really, it's to shine a light on that, raise the information and the need, and then have people donate to help us continue to provide the kind of supports and services that are necessary to help address those needs.
* So if somebody is listening-- and they are-- and they're asking how they can help, tell us how to do that.
* Oh, please go to our website. Very simple-- WoodGreen.org. You'll see the campaign, and just click on the Donate Here. And that would be wonderful.
* All right. Anne, Steve, thanks so much for your time.
* Yeah, thank you.
[AUDIO LOGO]
[THEME MUSIC]
