The time to act on poverty reduction is here.
The momentum builds this month, as Tamarack Institute, Vibrant Communities Canada and the City of Edmonton come together to organize a milestone gathering to deepen our understanding of poverty as a human rights issue that impacts everyone in our communities.
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I have been preparing for the community engagement learning event Tamarack is doing in Ottawa this week, called Community Engagement: The Next Generation. One of the workshops I wanted to do was on engagement of marginalized populations, in particular those living in poverty. My exploration of this topic led me to some provocative writing by Vu Le, who is a writer, speaker, and executive director of Rainier Valley Corps, a capacity building organization with a focus on leveling the playing field for people of colour as well as small, grass roots organizations.
I was particularly drawn to a piece he wrote on his blog about “Trickle-Down Community Engagement,” and his writing became the catalyst for one of the workshops I am doing, aptly called “Avoiding Trickle-Down Community Engagement of the Marginalized.”
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It’s sad. There are too many people who speak ill of charities.
Some make sweeping accusations or conclusions without any real evidence or understanding.
Some prefer to focus on the mistakes charities make (and of course they make some) rather than the good they deliver.
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I never understood “don’t shoot the messenger” as the stereotypical retort the messenger must use to defend her delivery of a message. Maybe we need a new cultural utterance like “You know how the messenger shoots those who don’t listen.”
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It’s been going on for quite some time to be honest. Often it’s just subtle derision producing comments like “charities need to be more business-like” or “My goodness, how many charities do we really need?” Other times the charity slam manifests as a rant against “poverty pimps” or a rail against artists who create things “that my five year old could make.”
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