We Are Looking for Your Ideas
Help make this innovative approach work! Ideas and suggestions from Cities Reducing Poverty members and broader learners of the Vibrant Communities Canada network are critical to developing a solid foundation in which to identify key levers that have large impacts on poverty reduction.
Once you have read about the framework and reviewed the Game Changers we have drafted below please complete our survey - this survey has now been closed.
Brief Overview of a 'Game Changer'
Vibrant Communities (VC) Canada's Game Changer approach to poverty reduction represents an innovative new way of framing our work to more effectively support and inform our movement to reduce and eradicate poverty nationwide. The Game Changer approach cross-cuts our members’ local work, highlights high impact policies, and informs our shared evaluation process and framework. By zoning in on high impact strategies, we coordinate and enhance the work we are doing as a network, and accelerate our collective impact in reaching our poverty reduction goals.
The goal of this Game Changer series is to highlight priority areas and strategies, as identified by Vibrant Communities Canada and our Cities Reducing Poverty members, that elicit an array of positive, significant, and cascading outcomes towards reducing poverty. Consider from your experience, do the the following eight Game Changers resonate with you?
An Exploration of VC Canada's Poverty Reduction Game Changers
(Note: The numbering of the Game Changers is meant for cross-reference purposes only; they are not ranked in any particular order.
Click on each Game Changer below for more information and best practice and policy examples of each.)
Income security through employment and non-employment sources, and readiness for, access to, and retention of secure, livable wage jobs where employer policies support employees’ needs.
Affordable, accessible and appropriate housing that meets people’s unique needs, affordable utility costs, housing retention supports, and protection from eviction.
Affordable and accessible public transportation and innovative rural solutions that accommodate and cater to individuals with unique needs. -more details to come
Literacy, graduation from high school or equivalency, affordable and accessible post-secondary education, and opportunities for alternative learning supports. -more details to come
Affordable and accessible health care services that are not covered under provincial/territorial medical plans, and comprehensive, inclusive supports for physical and mental health. -more details come
6 – Early Childhood Development
Healthy early child development, school readiness, strong parenting skills, and access to affordable and regulated childcare spaces. -more details to come
Affordable, accessible, sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets dietary needs for an active and healthy life. -more details to come
Accessible mainstream banking services, protection from fraud and predatory lending, and ability to build savings/assets, improve credit ratings, and reduce debt. -more details to come
Share the Game Changers with your network by downloading our Overview as a PDF here.
Learn More
- Read the framework for more on our strategy and evaluation approach in the foundational article: Sometimes to Hear the Music You Have to Turn Down the Noise, by Mark Holmgren
- Dive deeper on the framework by watching this webinar with Mark Holmgren and Mark Cabaj, A Game Changer Approach to Poverty Reduction Strategy and Evaluation.
- Access the presentation slides
