A reading from the book Policies of Exclusion, Poverty and Health: Stories from the front. Compiled, with Introduction and Reports by Chrystal Ocean. Copyright 2005. SYNOPSIS "I was pretty outgoing as a really young child. If I thought something was crap, I would say so. The first time my mom took out her stuff on me, I sat her down the next day and said, “You got a little out of control.” Just had this rational discussion! I was 7… "We moved to different neighbourhoods and I wound up at a really tough school; I got beaten up at school everyday for a couple of years. It was ironic. I got beaten by a gang of girls on the same bridge that [14-year-old] Reena Virk died under. Of course, I was supposed to come home with A’s and B’s. It just wasn’t happening. So I’d get beaten up at home as well." Rayna has struggled with depression and anxiety most of her life. Now on disability benefits, she is trying to maintain a part-time job, more for the sake of her self-esteem than for any bit of extra money she might earn. In fact, Rayna faces strong disincentives to work, including employment expenses which are not included in Ministry calculations. Rayna also faces other barriers: finding housing which allows pets, her pets having been her lifeline; and earning enough money in any given week to keep up with the interest charged on an original $180 payday loan. Ocean WISE Book - Policies of Exclusion, Poverty & Health: Stories from the front Podcast Channel: http://bcseawalker.podbean.com/ Personal Blog: Challenging the Commonplace - and other irreverent activities http://challengingthecommonplace.blogspot.com/ ------------------- Problems/Questions? Send it to Listserv owner: [log in to unmask] To unsubscribe, send the following message in the text section -- NOT the subject header -- to [log in to unmask] SIGNOFF SDOH DO NOT SEND IT BY HITTING THE REPLY BUTTON. THIS SENDS THE MESSAGE TO THE ENTIRE LISTSERV AND STILL DOES NOT REMOVE YOU. To subscribe to the SDOH list, send the following message to [log in to unmask] in the text section, NOT in the subject header. SUBSCRIBE SDOH yourfirstname yourlastname To post a message to all 1200+ subscribers, send it to [log in to unmask] Include in the Subject, its content, and location and date, if relevant. For a list of SDOH members, send a request to [log in to unmask] To receive messages only once a day, send the following message to [log in to unmask] SET SDOH DIGEST To view the SDOH archives, go to: https://listserv.yorku.ca/archives/sdoh.html