Postal worker potential untapped

Edmonton city councillor Mike Nickel has suggested Edmonton should come up with additional benefits if it wants to convince MPs to keep postal workers on our streets. He suggested an app to allow postal workers to report pot holes or burned out street lights, or cooperation with police to report drug houses.

1974 stamp commemorating letter carriers in Canada

Nickel should look into what happened with the Edmonton the Aging in Place initiative  - in 2007 it was recommended that postal workers be involved in an Aging in Place program to work to enhance the protection of Edmonton seniors who live in their own homes. Two pilot projects ran in 2010 through the Lamplighter Program, which is run by Alberta Health Services to recruit and train community partners - both employees and volunteers - to speak out to protect seniors, to watch for signs that a senior needs help, and to connect seniors with programs that can provide for their needs.

It's not clear if postal workers were involved in the pilots, but I recall hearing about a similar program where postal workers were partnered with seniors who had simple needs to allow them to stay in their homes. One letter carrier was asked to help a senior perform one simple task that made the difference between her staying in her home and having to leave - she couldn't carry the garbage down the sidewalk on garbage day, and her garbage was piling up inside her home. So she would leave her trash - a small bag - on the front door step for the letter carrier to bring back down the walk to the curbside bin.

CTV reports on the 2013 $327M operating loss that Canada
Post says led to its decision to cut home delivery services.

There are already examples of partnerships between postal workers and other levels of government in Canada. Nova Scotia runs a fraud prevention program that involved a partnership between banks, the Better Business Bureau, the department of seniors, and Canada Post.

And in the US the National Association of Letter Carriers participates in "Stamp Out Hunger" food drives across the country each year.

This is an idea worth exploring.

Update, Nov 28, 2014: Here's another example of how cities can partner with citizens. What if every neighbourhood had a bus driver like Jan?