Edmonton Social Planning Council

Category: **Resources: Social Issues:

  • 2010 Gathering Today Proceedings

    Title:Gathering today for our aboriginal children’s future: inaugural meeting.
    Author(s):Fritz, Yvonne
    Corporate Author: Government of Alberta. Children and Youth Services
    Subject:Children – child welfare system|split|Indigenous peoples – health, welfare
    Publisher:Government of Alberta. Children and Youth Services
    Place of Publication:Edmonton
    Date of Publication:2010
    Abstract:

    Thursday 17th June, 2010, was an important and memorable day. This inaugural meeting, Gathering Today For Our Aboriginal Children’s Future, was a special opportunity for Chairs of Delegated First Nation Agencies, Co-Chairs of Child and Family Services Authorities, and Representatives of First Nation organizations served by Child and Family Services Authorities to meet together for the first time.

    Language:English
     Material Type:Other

    F. SOCIAL ISSUES/F.12 INDIGENOUS PEOPLE/2010 gathering_today_proceedings.pdf

  • 2010 Foundation Years

    Title:The foundation years: preventing poor children becoming poor adults.
    Variant Title:The report of the Independent Review on Poverty and Life Chances
    Author(s):Field, Frank
    Subject:Poverty – child poverty|split|Poverty – child poverty and schools|split|Poverty – planning, policy
    Publisher:Cabinet Office
    Place of Publication:London
    Date of Publication:2010
    Abstract:

    There are huge class differences in the range of children’s abilities measurable on their first day at school. For many poor children life’s race is by then already effectively over. The report has two overarching recommendations. To prevent poor children from becoming poor adults the Review proposes establishing a set of Life Chances Indicators that will measure how successful we are as a country in making life’s outcomes more equal for all children. To drive this policy of raising life chances the Review proposes establishing the first pillar of a new tripartite education system: the Foundation Years, covering the period conception to five. The Foundation Years will then lead into the school years, leading to further, higher and continuing education. The single objective of the Foundation Years will be to improve the life chances of poor children. Foundation Years’ services will be paid according to their success in narrowing class differences as children start school. Parents are the key drivers in determining their children’s life chances. It is not so much who parents are – what their jobs are – but what parents do – how they nurture their children – which, the evidence shows, determines a child’s life’s race. The whole of the Foundation Years’ activities will focus on enabling all parents to move into the ‘what parents do’ category and so underpin the success of their children. The report proposes, in response to young people’s demands, that schools should teach parenting and life skills throughout the whole of their school life. Pupils will begin to learn how they can advance the lives of their children when they start a family. Ante natal and post natal courses should continue providing this information, as should Sure Start, in its new form. The contracts for Sure Start Mark II should be put out to tender so that GPs, voluntary bodies, housing associations, schools and the staff themselves are able to bid for contracts, where the payments will be linked to reaching the hardest to reach and most vulnerable parents, working with them consistently, and ensuring that their children are ready for school on their first day. The report further proposes that in future governments should not automatically each year increase benefits for children. Instead, they should consider if money to be spent in automatically increasing benefit rates, could not, in that year, be used more effectively to widen life chances – and thereby defeat child poverty – by building up the Foundation Years. The construction of the Life Chances Indicators will measure at the national level children’s cognitive, physical and emotional development at the ages of three and five. These factors all determine outcomes later in life. The Life Chances Indicators should be published each year by the Government so that taxpayers can see what progress is being made in preventing poor children from becoming poor adults. These Indicators should similarly be calculated at a local level, so that individual parents can know how their children are progressing. The local indices would also show taxpayers whether their local authority is running the Foundation Years effectively to expand the life chances of poorer children. The Foundation Years: Preventing Poor Children Becoming Poor Adults sets out for the Government a new strategy for abolishing child poverty. It is simultaneously a policy for social mobility, in that it should result in today’s poor children gaining the skills to acquire highly paid jobs. The strategy over time will therefore change the shape of the distribution of income in this country by eliminating the larger numbers of people who currently leave school to face at best a life time of low pay or at worse unemployment.

    Language:English
     Material Type:Report

    F. SOCIAL ISSUES/F.07 CHILDREN/2010 foundation_years.pdf

  • 2010 Food Security Edmonton

    Title:Food security for Edmonton: is it really something we should care about?
    Author(s):Lipton, Becky
    Subject:Food security – general
    Publisher:Becky Lipton Research & Consulting
    Place of Publication:Edmonton
    Date of Publication:2010
    Abstract:

    Could we ever achieve complete food security – where every Edmontonian has enough healthy and safe food to eat, which we can supply in a sustainable manner, no matter what? This paper explores what achieving food security would mean, what factors would influence our ability, and our decisions to do so, what is really at stake, and what the ultimate benefits would be. The paper delves into some of the big picture factors like peak oil, climate change, food miles, and other international influences we have limited to no control over. It also looks at what makes Edmonton unique when it comes to food security. Things like how much food we export, the price of food, hunger in the city, our high quality soils, our micro-climates and our farmers all influence whether and how we should be thinking about food security. Finally a strategy is presented which builds on our strengths and proactively moves us towards a healthy, resilient and sustainable future.

    Language:English
    Series:The Edmonton Sustainability Papers – Discussion Paper 7
     Material Type:Report

    F. SOCIAL ISSUES/F.15 HUNGER/2010 food_security_edmonton.pdf

  • 2010 Federal Pov. Reducation

     

    Title:Federal poverty reduction plan: working in partnership towards reducing poverty in Canada.
    Author(s):Hoeppner, Candice
    Corporate Author: Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities
    Subject:Poverty – planning, policy
    Publisher:Government of Canada
    Place of Publication:Ottawa
    Date of Publication:2010
    Abstract:

    It is the Committee’s intent that the recommendations made in this report contribute to the development of an effective federal poverty reduction plan that will reduce poverty and increase labour force participation rates. Members of the Committee realize that the implementation of the federal action plan recommended in this report will require an ongoing commitment and greater cooperation between federal, provincial and territorial governments. The Committee agrees that the time has come to seriously address the risk factors associated with poverty, and that the federal government can work in cooperation with other levels of government, Aboriginal stakeholders and community organizations to ensure that all Canadians live in dignity and can fully and actively participate in Canada’s social and economic life.

    Language:English
    Material Type:Report

    F. SOCIAL ISSUES/F.04 POVERTY/2010 federal_pov_reduction.pdf

  • 2010 Families Count

     

    Title:Families count: profiling Canada’s families IV.
    Corporate Author: The Vanier Institute of the Family
    Subject:Family – general|split|Family – statistics
    Publisher:The Vanier Institute of the Family
    Place of Publication:Ottawa
    Date of Publication:2010
    Abstract:

    Within the pages of Families Count: Profiling Canada’s Families IV, readers will discover the many ways in which the structural, functional and affective dimensions of family life have changed. Today’s families are smaller. Adults wait longer to marry if they do so at all. Common-law unions are no longer just a preliminary or trial stage before marriage but, for many, an alternative to marriage. On average, Canadians wait longer than did their parents or grandparents to have children. They are more likely to separate or divorce. In less than a lifetime, the dual- earner family has gone from an exception to the norm, and a growing number of women are primary income earners within their families. In contrast to the past when most children growing up with only one parent were living with a widow or widower, the children growing up today with a lone parent are most likely to have another living parent, albeit a mother or, as is most often the case, a father living elsewhere. All of these changes, and many others, can only be understood against the backdrop of wider social and economic trends: the evolution of a global economy, increasing respect for human rights, the emancipation of women, the migration of populations between and within countries, as well as from the country into cities, and the many technological innovations that have so profoundly changed the ways in which we work, play, communicate, and care.

    Language:English
    Material Type:Report

    F. SOCIAL ISSUES/F.11 FAMILY/2010 Families_Count.pdf

  • 2010 Every Bite Counts

    Title:Every bite counts: climate justice and BC’s food system.
    Author(s):Lee, Marc|split|Barbolet, Herb|split|Adams, Tegan|split|Thomson, Matt
    Corporate Author: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, BC office
    Subject:Food security – local food systems|split|Environmental issues – climate change
    Publisher:Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, BC office
    Place of Publication:Vancouver
    Date of Publication:2010
    Abstract:

    The abundance of the modern supermarket is the ultimate product of a post-WWII food system based on industrial-scale agriculture, cheap fossil fuels and global trade. Examining our food through a climate change lens, however, suggests a rethink is in order — from reducing the greenhouse gases produced throughout the food system, to making the food system resilient to supply disruptions. BC also needs to develop a more just distribution of food, better support farmers, farmworkers and fishers, and seek healthier nutritional outcomes from our food system. This is not a task that can be left to market forces alone. It calls for a more coherent planning framework at all levels of the food system. The supermarket cannot ensure food security, which according to the Community Nutritionists Council of BC, “exists when all community residents obtain a safe, personally acceptable, nutritious diet through a sustainable food system that maximizes healthy choices, community self-reliance and equal access for everyone.” Such a systems approach to food is becoming widespread in BC and other jurisdictions. BC is starting in an excellent position to move forward, with most domestic food production occurring on small farms, while ties to local markets have been strengthening through initiatives like weekly farmers’ markets, community shared agriculture projects, and home delivery services. BC also has the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR), although its erosion in recent years is cause for concern. These ingredients point towards a food system that could be, with strong public policy actions, just and sustainable.

    Language:English
    Material Type:Report

    F. SOCIAL ISSUES/F.15 HUNGER/2010 every_bite_counts.pdf