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2019 Begins with New Developments in Poverty Reduction

Posted by Justin Williams on January 12, 2019

January 2019 is turning into an active time for poverty reduction in Canada at the Federal level. The Minister has been making announcements about the impact of new and ongoing government programs and deadlines for applications and submissions related to the national poverty reduction strategy are coming up.

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Prince Edward Island's Action Plan on Poverty

Posted by Natasha Pei on January 11, 2019

After just under a year of research and engaging Islanders in a discussion on challenges and solutions to poverty, Prince Edward Island (PEI) released their Poverty Reduction Action Plan in November 2018.

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Leveraging Theatre Tools for Collaboration

Posted by Megan Wanless on January 8, 2019

We know that when tackling complex community issues, bringing a diversity of voices to the table is a key ingredient to finding the best path forward. We don’t however, always do a great job of intentionally creating an environment where people – with varying backgrounds and perspectives – can thrive and feel comfortable contributing. This is where leveraging tools and techniques from our friends in the theatre community can come in handy.

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What Makes Your Neighbourhood Work an Asset-Based Community Development Process?

Posted by Heather Keam on December 20, 2018

Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) is not a new concept. About 40 years ago, John McKnight and Jody Kretzmann, took a four-year learning journey, visiting twenty cities and talking to 2,000 people in neighbourhoods which culminated in the book Building Communities From the Inside Out: A Path Towards Finding and Mobilizing a Neighborhood’s Assets. They wanted to discover if people knew who lived on their block and if they do things together. From this journey, 125,000 books have been sold and a movement was created.

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Evaluating Systems Change Results: An Inquiry Framework

Posted by Mark Cabaj on December 18, 2018
At Tamarack’s Community Change Institute in Vancouver in 2015, Karen Pittman, CEO of the Forum on Youth Investment, shared a noble prize worthy piece of poetry:  Programmatic interventions help people beat the odds. Systemic interventions can help change their odds.
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Nine Stocking Stuffers...and a Lump of Coal

Posted by Alison Homer on December 16, 2018

2018 was a dynamic year for federal and provincial policies related to poverty reduction. Cities Reducing Poverty (CRP) members across Canada serve as strong advocates and partners at all orders of government, with the goal of transforming policies to be more affordable, accessible and inclusive.

Through an end-of-year survey of the CRP network, three quarters (76%) of members self-reported at least moderate policy gains, and more than half (56%) reported major policy gains under at least one policy area. Primary policy areas that members were engaged with related to housing, income, employment, education, transportation and food security.

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