What Are We Doing to Address Poverty in Niagara?
in September of 2008, Regional Council authorized staff to reinvest the cost savings in social assistance of approximately $900,000 for the remainder of 2008 and $1.5 million for the calendar year 2009- a Council Planning session identified seven strategies that the 2008 budget money would be spent on
- there was a strong agreement to move forward with the establishment of an Advisory Committee that would respond to the needs of people who are living in poverty and work toward increasing their prosperity with a leader to take responsibility for its coordination
- Community Services staff has worked to meet three primary objectives related to increasing prosperity for Niagara families living in poverty. These objectives were:
- to establish a community based advisory committee
- to invest in the seven strategies
- to invest $1.5 million in increasing prosperity for neighbourhoods in need of attention across the region
- established Niagara Prosperity Initiatives Advisory Committee, a collaboration between private, voluntary, and public sectors, which provides leadership in sharing ideas and is focused on leveraging existing resources and developing new resources that will address poverty at a neighbourhood level across Niagara
- the Business Education Council has taken the lead role for the prosperity projects
- implemented the seven strategies:
- breakfast programs
- back to school/winter clothing funding for children
- completion of an integrated inventory of services offered to parents through the Ontario Early Years Centre (OEYC) and family resources
- $100/month gift card to grocery store for Sole Support Parents (SSP) on Social Assistance with earnings for up to 12 months
- Good Food Box - creating a link with local farmers to provide nutritious food
- Emergency Energy Fund - to assist with individuals who are facing disconnection of gas or hydro
- free bus passes for high school youths to increase participation in the community
Next steps: Poverty to Prosperity
- key informant interviews with people living in poverty at the neighbourhood level
- discussion at neighbourhood tables
- future investments that respond to neighbourhood inputs
- data collection and reporting
Why focus on neighbourhoods?
- in order to guide strategic investment Community Services staff developed neighbourhood profiles identifying the assets and risk factors within each of Niagara's 74 neighbourhoods with the goal of building strong neighbourhoods in Niagara
- these neighbourhood profiles will be used in community consultations to assist in the development of prosperity strategies. All future strategies will need to show how it will affect the growth and prosperity of the neighbourhoods it is meant to improve and the profiles will act as a funding approval guideline