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Report by Monica Townson, 2009. Published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Available in the ESPC library.

The recession is on everyone’s mind these days. As stimulus packages are rolled out, governments aim to develop strategies for helping vulnerable groups within their communities. One thing we often forget, however, is that within every vulnerable population, women are hit harder than men.

This report highlights key issues related to women’s poverty while also discussing poverty in general. Townson asks whether stimulus programs incorporate prior anti-poverty strategies or place them on a backburner. She also points out that stimulus programs may actually increase the numbers of those living in poverty, especially women.

As an example of this, Townson points to the fact that our federal stimulus package does nothing to address problems with the current Employment Insurance program. The majority of the unemployed do not qualify for benefits, and women are more likely to be denied than men. Women are also more likely than men to supplement their Employment Insurance with additional earnings, to make ends meet.

Poverty among women has many faces—including the immigrant, aboriginal, lone-parent, senior, or disabled. It can leave women lacking key resources:

• the income to participate fully in the social and political life of their community
• affordable child care, which in turn limits their employment opportunities and other activities
• the ability to save for retirement.

Women’s poverty results primarily from two things: how women are treated when they are employed, and the situation they find themselves in when they’re unemployed. Women earn an average of 65.7% of the wages their male counterparts do. In addition, women are more likely to find themselves in lower-paid positions or in non-standard work where benefits or job security are not available.

Most anti-poverty initiatives focus on specific programs that do not explicitly target women. For example, we have recognized that many children are poor because their parents are poor; we have implemented programs focused on child welfare, and we monitor these to see if they have had positive effects on the child. We forget, however, that poor children live in low-income families often headed by lone-parent women, and we don’t track whether these single mothers are benefiting equally from the programs. We focus on the “feel good” side of alleviating child poverty while forgetting that the poverty status of children hinges on their parents. In today’s world, according to Townson, “it has become more acceptable to talk about child poverty than women’s poverty”.

What’s the best solution? Townson provides key characteristics of effective strategies:

• They must be comprehensive and integrated so that all members of a population will benefit.
• They need to have clear and specific goals, targets, and timelines.
• Progress must be measured regularly and reported on publicly.
• The strategy must be transparent and publicly promoted
• Strategies must be developed with the participation of stakeholders
• Accountability must be built into the program.

Townson also suggests policies specifically related to women’s poverty, including changes to Canada’s EI system, increases in minimum wage, Guaranteed Income Supplements for single older women, and restoration of funding to child care programs. She also advocates for gender analysis of data gathered by program monitoring systems; women cannot be allowed to slip through the gap.

Read this report if you’re interested in anti-poverty, women’s issues, or child welfare.

Review by Jennifer Hoyer 

Book published by the OECD, 2009. Available in the ESPC library as book or PDF.

Childcare workers and policymakers interested in child welfare should take a look at Doing Better for Children. This in-depth report examines the efforts OECD member countries are making to enhance the well-being of their children. The authors ask what government programs for children are achieving and investigate whether money is being spent wisely. Why should we care about these issues? Because the health of our economy and society hinges on the well-being of today’s children.
The scope of this book includes data on how 28 member countries, including Canada, distribute government social spending across the life cycle of a child. It is very helpful to look at Canada’s data in this context. The report also lets us look at how we measure up against our peer countries in relation to the proportion of resources they allocate to child well-being.

Doing Better for Children compares data across six areas:

• Material Well-being
• Housing and Environment
• Education
• Health and Safety
• Risk Behaviours
• Quality of School Life

Other important issues are also discussed. It turns out that more money is spent on the last third of childhood – the “facebook years” – than the first third – the “Dora the Explorer years”. By contrast, the authors conclude that spending on the first third of childhood is more effective. Following from this, policies regarding services for infants and very young children (under-3s) are compared across countries.

Another interesting theme is intergenerational inequality. Do children become their parents? Is social mobility an option for children today? It turns out that socioeconomic class plays a major role in determining social mobility.

Controversial conclusions are made with regards to family environment. The authors discuss whether family make-up has an impact on child well-being, and they state that staying together for the kids doesn’t necessarily create a better home environment than a single-parent family.

The authors report some difficulty collecting data due to a general lack of statistic-keeping for this age group. Despite this, they have compiled insightful data into easy-to-read tables and graphs.

Several general policy recommendations are made. They include the following:

• Governments should invest more in early childhood than in later adolescence
• Early investment in disadvantaged children needs follow-up throughout their childhood
• Intergenerational inequality will most likely be broken by early investment
• Policies for child well-being need to address all the dimensions of their lives
• Politicians and policymakers need targets and timelines if goals related to child well-being are to be met.
• Comprehensive statistics on children need to be gathered regularly, both to monitor child well-being and to inform policy. At present, children are “statistically invisible” in many countries.
• Governments must be vigilant in tracking the effectiveness of programs and ensuring that funding is properly allocated.

A few specific and thought-provoking policy suggestions are made: Parental smoking should be reduced, especially during pregnancy. Educational funding should be reallocated towards disadvantaged children. Less money should be spent on post-natal hospital stays, older children, and single parents. Whether you agree with these statements or not, the report is worth a read.
There’s nothing like some OECD policy recommendations for good conversation starter!

Review by Jennifer Hoyer  

Report by Marian J. Rossiter and Katherine R. Rossiter, 2009. Prairie Metropolis Centre.

Did you know?

• 46 to 74 percent of immigrant youth whose first language is not English fail to finish high school.
• Immigrant youth are recruited into gangs and illegal activity as early as the age of 10, and continuing to the ages of 18-20.
• Immigrant and refugee youth are not perceived to be in conflict with the law more than their Canadian peers, but they are more vulnerable to gang recruitment.

If the basic needs of immigrant youth are not met they will seek alternative means, which may lead to involvement in organized crime. This report examines key factors at play in the lives of immigrant youths who become involved in crime, gangs, and violence in Edmonton.

Prime risk factors identified are:

• Family – poverty, lack of healthy family relationships, mental and physical health
• Individual – pre-immigration violence, addiction, health issues
• Peer – social exclusion, discrimination, inter-ethnic conflict
• School – lack of ESL and curriculum adaptation; bullying; interrupted formal education
• Community – lack of role models and leadership opportunities within their ethno-cultural community; lack of safe and affordable housing

Many of these risk factors will compound on each other to create extremely volatile situations.

4 major policy recommendations are made by the authors:

• Enhance integration by providing adequate funding for settlement, mental health, and multicultural services to facilitate adaptation.
• Government must ensure that the socioeconomic circumstances of immigrant families allow them to meet their basic needs. Programs for safe housing and appropriate employment are necessary.
• Communities must have comprehensive support networks for immigrant youth and their families in place to provide youth with information about social and health services, education, employment, and other resources.
• Schools are in an ideal place to meet the needs of immigrant youth. A process of needs and risk assessment should be set up, followed by adequate ESL support and necessary curriculum adaptation. Culturally and ethnically diverse staff populations are in a position to act as role models. Zero-tolerance methods for dealing with bullying and other transgressions should be replaced with restorative measures. Immigrant students should be supplied with career counselling, goal-setting guidance, after-school programs aimed at helping them adapt and integrate, and funding for further education.

Coordination between multiple levels of government and diverse sectors of the community is essential for reducing the risk of immigrant youth becoming involved in criminal activity.

This paper is useful for anyone working with immigrants or at-risk youth; educators.

Review by Jennifer Hoyer  

Book edited by Paul Born, Tamarack Institute for Community Engagement.  BPS Books, 2008.

The percentage of Canadians living on low incomes fell from 29 to 13 percent between 1961 and 1977, but has not substantially decreased in the last three decades.  At the core of the Vibrant Communities mindset is the realization that poverty reduction is the means to improve overall quality of life in a community. 

Rather than focusing on supports for those living in poverty, the founders envisioned communities in which it would be impossible for poverty to exist.  The basic themes of the Vibrant Communities approach are:

• Poverty reduction

• Comprehensive thinking and action

• Multi-sector collaboration

• Community asset building

• Community learning and change (rather than short-term intervention)

Vibrant Communities began as Opportunities 2000 in Waterloo, Ontario.  As a four year initiative involving eighty-six community organizations in forty-seven poverty reduction projects, Opportunities 2000 ultimately helped 1600 families.  This book includes two background papers on the driving forces behind Vibrant Communities, as well as ten case studies of communities across Canada – including Edmonton – that have followed this path.

Vibrant Communities Edmonton has developed a strategy focused on three areas: workforce development, family economic support, and community investment.  The Job Bus was designed to provide transportation to work so that employees could find and keep jobs.  The Make Tax Time Pay campaign sought to make low-income families aware of services available from the Alberta Child Health Benefit.  The Home Program was created to help low-income individuals overcome the obstacles in their path to being homeowners.

The British Columbia Capital Region Quality of Life Challenge focuses on sustainable incomes, affordable housing, and community connections.  As part of the Employer Challenge, HR Options for Action educates employers about ways they can improve the lives of their low-income workers.  Mentors help those moving towards sustainable incomes make good choices through the Mentorship Challenge.  Collaboration between many organizations established the Regional Housing Trust Fund to address housing affordability and availability.

In the Niagara Region, Opportunities Niagara offers services such as brokering and coordination, social marketing, technical assistance and coaching, and improved access to resources, while facilitating collaboration between community organizations.  Target areas in this region include adequate employment, affordable housing, and accessible transportation.

In New Brunswick, Vibrant Communities St. John is examining low-income neighbourhoods and targeting the issues that make it difficult for residents of these areas to move out of poverty.  VCSJ has focused on children and youth, providing early childhood development opportunities for low-income families. Other targeted areas are education for employment, safe and affordable housing, and neighbourhood change.  VCSJ recently received five-year program funding from the municipal government for the neighbourhoods they have prioritized. 

Vivre Saint-Michel en Santé is focusing on social exclusion and poverty in this east-end Montréal neighbourhood.  They continue to work for more affordable housing and lobby for better access to services in the areas of culture, sports, recreation and commerce.  In collaboration with the Cirque du Soleil and the local school board a program for promoting arts and culture among youth has been established.  As part of an effort to train residents for employment in local businesses, a development worker is visiting local employers to match up needs with resources.

This book is useful for anyone interested in community development; those interested specifically in poverty reduction strategies; fans of Vibrant Communities Canada.  Visit tamarackcommunity[dot]ca or vibrantedmonton[dot]ca.  

Review by Jennifer Hoyer 

Book by Betsey Leondar-Wright, 2005
Reviewed by Anette Kinley in December 2008 Research Update

It is often the case that organizations or groups trying to address poverty and working-class issues are mainly, if not totally, represented by middle-class people. The differences in perspectives and life experiences between classes can lead to a variety of misunderstandings, missteps and frustrations that create barriers to working together effectively toward common goals.

Class Matters is an engaging collection of stories and practical ideas from experienced advocates that illuminate how the class differences that can limit the progress of groups working for social change can be overcome. To put it in author Betsy Leondar-Wright’s words, “We all have the choice to get by, get over, or get together. This book is for those who take the “get together” path, and its goal is to help us get together across class differences.” (page 7)

Even though I haven’t read it from cover to cover – yet! – I am convinced that Class Matters should be recommended, if not required, reading for people working for social change. It is of particular interest to those who are working with, or seeking to work with, people from diverse class backgrounds (and across cultures, ethnicities, gender, sexual orientations, etc.).

The variety of issues covered by this book makes it difficult to summarize. One of its main focuses, however, is recognizing and countering the socially conditioned, and often unconscious, behaviours and assumptions that distance middle-class activists from the working-class people they are trying to help.

“… we all make mistakes. There’s not a middle-class person alive who hasn’t said dumb,insensitive things that step on working-class toes. … As we talk, working-class people notice how oblivious or how aware of class issues we seem, and make decisions about how much to collaborate with us based on those evaluations, among others factors. The goal of reducing the classism in our speech is not to keep ourselves out of trouble by avoiding angering working-class people, and it’s not to reach some kind of perfect non-classist purity. The goal is to make ourselves more trustworthy and to alienate working-class people less so that we can work together for economic justice and other common goals.” (page 89)

The book concludes with practical tips and resources to help break down the barriers of class difference and enable groups to work together effectively for social change. Some of these tips include: 

• Moving from pretense to authenticity: building trust through honesty in dialogue.
• Moving from politeness and caution to openness and humor: build relationships through friendliness and respect.
• Moving from competition and superiority to confident humility: recognizing our common limitations as human beings.
• Moving from excessive abstraction to groundedness: rooting discussion and action in reality.
• Moving from guilt to balanced responsibility: avoiding being mislead or immobilized by guilt.
• Moving from individual achievement to community interdependence: seeing the big picture, balancing individual tasks and relation-ships/working together.

Class Matters is now at the top of my reading list! If you’re experiencing, or just plain interested in, the tensions and challenges (and rewards!) of cross-class work, you might want to add it to yours, too.