The Latest

Lower Columbia Region Releases Road Map to Poverty Reduction

British Columbia is one of the most prosperous provinces in Canada, yet poverty remains a serious issue in many communities. According to a new report released today, key indicators of poverty remain startlingly high in the Lower Columbia Region (LCR) of BC’s West Kootenay. For example, the four local foodbanks support approximately 5,000 visits per year. Additionally 1,600 households – 1 in 5 in the region – are in housing need, and in 2013, the last year for which there is reliable data, 990 children were living in poverty.

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Working yet Homeless in Banff, Alberta

Banff, Alberta. Located in one of the most beautiful areas in Canada. People come from all over the world by the bus loads. There is money being made for sure. Nothing wrong with making money, right?

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Towards a Canadian Poverty Reduction Strategy

Tamarack’s Vibrant Communities Canada (VCC) is contributing to the Government of Canada’s large-scale public engagement process towards a federal Canadian poverty reduction strategy.  Through a partnership with Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), VCC supported 27 Cities Reducing Poverty (CRP) members to host 31 consultations across 9 provinces and territories, representing over 600 participants. ESDC will be collating feedback from these consultations into a What We Heard report that will be presented to the Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development.

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Ending Precarious Employment – A Game-Changer Strategy

Precarious Employment is the jargon people like me use to describe the employment conditions and experiences of a growing number of workers in our country. Here is what that jargon means:

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Living Wage and the Cities Reducing Poverty National Summit

In early April I had the pleasure of presenting on a Living Wage panel at Tamarack’s Cities Reducing Poverty Summit hosted this year in Hamilton, Ontario.

The Prosperity Roundtable from Chatham-Kent, Ontario was participating to talk about the unique challenges that may be experienced in rural communities when engaging in Living Wage conversations.  Framing the conversation in a way that leads to successful outcomes was incredibly important for our organizing committee; in our community that meant using our local Living Wage number as an opportunity to dialogue about the important policy considerations that can be used to help build a more prosperous community.  

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Advocacy in Canada’s Affordable Housing and Homelessness Sectors

This blog was originally posted on the Calgary Homelessness Foundation website on April 24, 2017 by Nick Falvo, and is re-posted here with permission.

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