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One week today marks Canada Without Poverty’s first fundraising event in Vancouver, BC. The Republic to End Poverty is slated for Thursday, August 19th at Republic nightclub in the downtown core. Partnering with a local art organization, MAB Ventures Inc., the event brings together a collection of established artists and organizations reaching marginalized individuals through art. Continue Reading…
During recent travels to Kelowna, BC to meet with anti-poverty organizations and other supportive groups, we had the privilege of meeting with a motivated group of individuals at The Bridge Youth and Family Services. They spoke to us about various issues around housing, including the lack of housing and supportive services for youth in the area. To counter this problem, the Bridge has found an innovative solution through their Youth Transitions program, which provides housing for youth in within a “mentorship” structure. To explain this program further we asked Director Leigh MacLeod to give us more information:
“The Youth Transitions Program offered through The Bridge Youth and Family Services in Kelowna, BC, has for many years provided support to hundreds of young people enhancing the skills necessary for a competent transition to adulthood. The program provides a community-based living experience for young people who are nearing the age of majority, which in B.C. is 19 years. Continue Reading…
Conversations about poverty may not often include references to the working poor, and yet this is a group that represents a large portion of our workforce. A 2008 STATS Canada report on earnings noted that 49% of Canadian jobs were paid less than $10 an hour, a figure that when set against what is needed for families to earn a living wage is abysmally low. Lorna Crozier, reknowned Canadian author and poet, explored this issue of the “invisible poor” with complete sincerity and touching personal anecdotes when she wrote her memoirs. Released in August 2009, Small Beneath the Sky describes life in small town Saskatchewan and the challenges families face when struggling with poverty. Lorna kindly agreed to share some of her memoirs with us and offered this introduction to her work:
One of the reasons I decided to write about my childhood and my family was to remind readers that we don’t live in a classless society. Oh, we’ve all seen the homeless, but many Canadians have fooled themselves into thinking that those who don’t live on the streets share the same comforts, the same advantages. Too easily the working poor are invisible. Growing up with parents who could barely pay for the rent of a derelict house had its effects on me. Continue Reading…
The roots of poverty are not always visible as we are often only looking at the symptoms. Prostitution represents a form of poverty prevalent in society that demonstrates the great need for support at the low income levels. Women are often forced into this industry from dire circumstances with few options. Daisy Kler from the Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelters speaks to the gravity of the situation as she writes about the sex trade, root causes and challenges women in prostitution face daily:
“The majority of women trapped or trafficked into prostitution are poor, Aboriginal and women of color. The “industry” highlights the intersection of poverty, racism and sexism and is a vice grip on women’s freedom.
According to some statistics, there are 40 million prostituted women around the world – that is larger than the population of Canada. The average age of entry into prostitution is 14, and a study by Melissa Farley reveals that over 90% of women in prostitution would leave if they could. Continue Reading…
In recent weeks a new standard of living was not only accepted, it was endorsed. New Westminster unanimously passed a Living Wage bylaw that in effect will ensure that all employees of the city, or contracted by the city, will receive a calculated living wage of $16.74. Intended to help families stuck in a cycle of poverty, this wage, although conservative, considers the basic costs of living including food, rent, and daycare. Continue Reading…
On May 13th, 2010, Canada Without Poverty’s Executive Director Rob Rainer presented to the Task Force on Financial Literacy in Ottawa. He made this presentation alongside Patricia Ashie, who is a Literacy and Equal Education Advocate, and who shared her story of poverty and the importance of literacy in her life in our First Voice section of this website.
Investing in literacy cannot be done successfully without investing in poverty. Rob notes that, “financial literacy and [its] prerequisites, if unaddressed, will limit the magnitude of gains to be made in improving financial literacy and therefore financial sufficiency and security Canada-wide.” These prerequisites would include solutions to poverty that address wealth and inequality, and indicate that a solution to financial literacy must been done on a broader scale.
To read the entire presentation and gain further insight, click on the report link below:
Presentation to the Task Force on Financial Literacy_Ottawa May 2010
When most people think of hunger, they picture starving skeleton-thin children. In North America, however, this image of hunger can be quite different. A recent survey in South Bronx, New York, states that the hungriest people in America today are not “sickly skinny, but excessively fat”.
Authors of the survey call it the Bronx Paradox: the World Health Organization calls it food insecurity.
The World Food Summit of 1996 defined food security as existing “when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life”. The concept of food security includes both physical and economic access to food that meets people’s dietary needs. Continue Reading…
It seems to be well understood that poorer people live shorter lives and have poorer health than affluent people. But does this statement mainly apply to the poor in developing countries who lack shelter, adequate nutritious food and other basic needs? Or do the poor in wealthy developed countries, like Canada, who lack shelter, adequate nutritious food and other basic needs, also live shorter lives and have poorer health than their affluent counterparts? Continue Reading…
When we come face to face with poverty one may fall into thoughts fueled by physical stereotypes of people we have seen on the street, or by common beliefs we hold. Our minds paint us a picture centered around a visual, which often fails to bring to light the individual in the portrait.
Each story of poverty is unique and personal. What ties people in poverty together, beyond a shared experience, is the lack of recognition for their human rights. Poverty is a clear violation of these rights, that represent both moral and legal standards set nationally and internationally. Continue Reading…
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms both provide for the rights of “life, liberty and security of the person.” But people in poverty, in general, have shorter lives, less liberty and less security of their person than their wealthier counterparts. Thus we can see how by preventing poverty, the health of millions of Canadians can be improved, the lives of many of them lengthened accordingly, and thus their right to “life” (as well their rights to liberty and security of the person) better supported. Moreover, by seizing poverty as a human rights issue and combating it more effectively, governments in concert with civil society will help reduce health care system costs. This is part of the transformative opportunity for Canada if fighting poverty is central to the public policy agenda. Continue Reading…
