What's New in the Coalition
Plus: Partnerships, Reports & Programs
Letter from the Director |
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With Family Day quickly approaching, thoughts of family poverty in
Calgary and across the country are on my mind.
We know that children who live in poverty tend to do poorly in school and experience poor health. We know that families living in poverty face increased stress. We can do better... |
| Note from our Affordable Housing Chair |
We were recently delighted to see that after a year of hard work, the Calgary Committee to End Homelessness has released their 10-Year Plan... |
In the News |
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Low-Income Families in Calgary |
According to the 2006 City of Calgary’s Count of Homeless Persons:
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We were recently delighted to see that after a year of hard work, the Calgary Committee to End Homelessness has released their 10-Year Plan.
Throughout the past year, staff and volunteers of the Poverty Reduction Coalition and United Way, including Kabir Jivraj, Ruth Ramsden-Wood, Lana Wells, Alina Tanasescu and myself were pleased to be an active part of the development of this plan, providing research expertise and people power.
A key component of the 10-Year Plan is the Housing First concept – moving people into housing first and then working with them to provide the supports they need to maintain that housing. The Poverty Reduction Coalition applauds the shift from managing homelessness to ending homelessness; and we are very excited to be a part of the movement that plans to eliminate family homelessness in the next two years.
Our recently released report Surviving Not Thriving documented the efforts of several families struggling to survive financially in Calgary. As a result of that study, we have partnered with a local service provider to work directly with a handful of families to help move them out of the cycle of poverty. All three levels of government will need to work together to make policy changes to support these efforts.
The Poverty Reduction Coalition is a community collaborative that is working hard to reduce the incidence of poverty in Calgary. To that end, the Coalition has done extensive work to address poverty and the lack of sufficient affordable housing in Calgary – both known to be causes of homelessness.
Calgary’s 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness provides an opportunity for the social service sector to work collaboratively with the private sector and all three levels of government to make significant and concrete changes to homelessness in Calgary. The Poverty Reduction Coalition looks forward to working collaboratively with those charged with the implementation of the Plan.
Bev Longstaff
Chair,
Affordable Housing Committee