Sharing Successes from Whitehorse, Yukon 

Poverty is more than a lack of income. Living a life free of poverty means being able to participate in our communities, actualizing our right to self-determination, and not living in fear of where the next meal is coming from.

Youth in Whitehorse and across the Yukon territory face numerous challenges - historic, systemic, and personal. The Yukon Anti-Poverty Coalition (YAPC) is mobilizing youth to implement their community's poverty reduction awareness, advocacy, and activities, empowering them to take leadership and create real impact for people who are struggling with poverty and homelessness. 

Learn how Whitehorse is getting their next generation involved in poverty-related issues.

Moving the Conversation: The Living Wage, Poverty, and Policy 

The Yukon Anti-Poverty Coalition released Whitehorse's living wage report at the beginning of July, becoming only the second Northern community to do so. The report revealed a wage rate of $19.12 per hour, one of the higher rates in Canada. Without a standard, reliable measure of poverty, the living wage is an important measure to highlight the struggles that people who are earning less than this wage undoubtedly face in meeting their basic needs.

Learn how the living wage is instigating conversations around poverty and policy changes.

New and Exciting with Tamarack Institute!  

Tamarack's goal is to equip you with the skills, knowledge, resources and connections you need to make lasting change in your community. We do our best to support you in a number of different ways, wherever you may be. Learn about Tamarack's progress, impact and some of the ways we are creating a connected force for community change in our 2015 Annual Report.

Tamarack Institute also has a great new look! Be among the first to navigate through our five big ideas, two practice areas, and engaging reads on our website.

Find us at www.tamarackcommunity.ca

If you belong to a Cities Reducing Poverty (CRP) member table, don't forget to access your coaching money! Are you looking for tailored, practical, hands-on help for your initiative? Whether you're in the formative, intermediate or advanced stage, we can help you hire a coach and will reimburse you for 50% of the cost (up to $1000). Here are some areas of suggestion:

• Evaluating community impact
• Structuring a collective impact initiative for poverty reduction
• Sustainably resourcing your roundtable
• Accessing Tamarack Institute's summits and learning events

Submit your coaching request today (CRP members-only please!)

This month, Alison Homer offers her top three evaluative resource picks for initiatives working with youth, capturing the topics and questions generated by members of the Evaluating Community Impact: Measuring Poverty Reduction - Community of Practice. Find them here:

• Incorporating a Vulnerability Lens – Ethics and Research with Young People in Challenging Contexts: Summary Document and Policy Checklist;
• Implementing Data Partnerships – Data Drives School-Community Collaboration - 7 Principles for Effective Data Sharing; and
• Toolkit – Evaluation Toolkit for Youth Programs.

A Tamarack Institute Feature Webinar

The Ontario Student Grant: A Case Study in Collaboration
Tuesday, July 26th | 12:00 - 1:00 pm EDT

Access to education is the best way to break the cycle of poverty. This spring, the Government of Ontario embarked on the single largest modernization to Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) ever, making tuition free for low and moderate-income families, and reducing costs for many middle-income families. Join Deputy Premier and Minister for Advanced Education and Skills Development Deb Matthews and United Way of Toronto and York Region's Pedro Barata, to find out how Ontario brought together those inside and outside government to ensure that merit, not money, determines who can access higher education.

Register Now

Featured Community of Practice (CoP)

Living Wage Leaders
Monday, July 25 | 12:00 - 1:00 pm EDT

Living Wage Leaders will hear about Whitehorse, Yukon’s new living wage campaign. It is only the second living wage campaign in the territories and has revealed one of the higher living wage rates in the country. Researcher Kendall Hammond will discuss the unique context of Whitehorse’s campaign, their calculation, and the new conversations that are arising around poverty and policy change.

 RSVP for July 25th and consider joining the CoP group.

Special Tamarack Community Change Institute Webinar Series

The Art of Disruption
Series Dates: July 20th, 27th and August 4th | 12:00 - 1:00 pm EDT

Many of the systems are showing signs of failure. Cities of the future are not waiting for others to solve these issues for them; they are tackling them head-on. With the Community Change Institute (see below) fast approaching, we will introduce you to faculty and keynote speakers, such as Paul Born, Liz Weaver, Stephen Patrick and Severn Cullis-Suzuki, to begin our conversations on key topic areas such as the art of disruption and collective impact. 

Register Now

Community Change Institute
Toronto, Ontario | September 26-30, 2016

Collective Impact. Community Engagement. Collaborative Leadership. Community Innovation. Evaluating Community Impact. Tamarack's five-day signature learning event is a transformational experience that will have you considering these five big ideas in a new way! Note, we are offering many special rates to our learners: Cities Reducing Poverty full members and Cities Reducing Poverty: When Mayors Lead summit alumni receive 2-for-1 discounts. Cities Reducing Poverty members are further eligible to redeem coaching credits and split the difference with VC Canada (up to $1,000).

Register Now