Abstract

Local to National Social Policy Development: The Roles of Frontline Agencies

John Stapleton, Rick Eagan and Maureen Fair

Social policy in Canada tends to be perceived to be in the realm of national and provincial governments and organizations. However, local (e.g. neighbourhood) and frontline community service agencies have a number of potential roles in social policy development:

• witnessing the diverse lived experiences of people in poverty
• linking people affected by policies to the policy-makers to share experiences and knowledge
• creating opportunities to have diverse stakeholders work together for improved social development
• evaluating social policy as implemented
• advocating for accountability of social policies.

This workshop will draw on the St. Christopher House Community Undertaking Social Policy (CUSP) projects on income security policies to facilitate discussion about the roles of local and frontline agencies in improving social policy development with questions such as:

• what do local and frontline agencies need to better participate in social policy?
• what do policy-makers need to better work with local and frontline agencies and the communities they serve?
• who is representing whom in social policy development? How to define different stakeholders and the processes for appropriately engaging them in social policy?
• how can provincial and national organizations link more effectively to diverse local and frontline agencies and to communities affected by social policies?

Bio

John Stapleton is the Community Undertaking Social Policy (CUSP) Fellow sponsored by the Atkinson Foundation with St. Christopher House and Massey College in Toronto. He recently left the Ontario Public Service after a 27-year career in income security policy and operational development.

St. Christopher House is a multi-service neighbourhood center in downtown west Toronto. Rick Eagan has been the Community Development Coordinator there for 7 years. Maureen Fair is Director of Community Response and Advocacy and has worked in St. Chris for 11 years.

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