Vibrant Communities Canada: Cities Reducing Poverty. Liz Weaver Tamarack: An Institute for Community Engagement

Transcription

1 Vibrant Communities Canada: Cities Reducing Poverty Liz Weaver Tamarack: An Institute for Community Engagement

2 One Hundred Cities. One Goal. Reduce Poverty.

3 Why Vibrant Communities?

4 The Impetus

5 History of Vibrant Communities

6 What are the elements of Vibrant Communities?

7 Vibrant Communities An experiment designed to test a specific way to address the complex realities of poverty through local level action. Theory of Change: Guided by 5 principles & assisted by extra supports provided by national sponsors local organizations and leaders could revitalize poverty reduction efforts in their communities and generate significantly improved outcomes.

8 The Complex Nature of Poverty Poverty is a complex issue. There is no single cause and no one solution. Its successful reduction, and ideally its eradication, require a set of linked interventions undertaken by all orders of government working in collaboration with communities. Poverty Policy Sherri Torjman, Caledon Institute of Social Policy October 2008

9 Vibrant Communities Partners Business Expertise, credibility and voice, connections, funding and other resources, leadership Government Expertise, connections to elected officials, funding and other resources, policy change, leadership Nonprofit Organizations Expertise, experience on the ground, service delivery, ability to ramp up change efforts Citizens with Lived Experience Expertise about the issues, practical and relevant solution, leadership, connections to other citizens

10 The Communities Part One Exploring Principles

11 What is the Impact? Increased Community Engagement Enhanced Community Innovation Policy and Systems Change Decreased Poverty

12 Inner resources Self-awareness Self-esteem and selfconfidence Hope and motivation Basic material goods and services Emergency supports Food Housing Transportation Dependent care Income, Savings and Sources of Financial Security Employment income Non-employment income Savings and financial assets Reduced debt/costs Financial Assets Social Assets Human Assets Skills, knowledge, education & health Health Life skills Financial literacy Education Employment Skills Relationships and Networks Civic participation Support networks Sustainable Livelihoods Approach Assets Pentagon

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14 Prosperity Strategies Education: Early Childhood, school success and high school completion Neighbourhood Revitalization Income: Make Tax Time Pay, Social Assistance Reform Transit: Affordable transit passes, Job Bus Housing: affordability, subsidies

15 What have we learned?

16 Using a comprehensive, multi-sector approach communities can 1. Raise the profile of poverty. 2. Build a constituency for change. 3. Encourage collaborative ways of working. 4. Begin to shift systems underlying poverty. 5. Generate changes for a large number of people living in poverty.

17 VC Success Factors Influential and credible convener(s) Cross-sector, connected leadership table Challenging community aspiration Clearly articulated purpose and approach High degree of resident mobilization Research which informs the work

18 Collective Impact Common agenda Shared measurement systems Mutually reinforcing activities Continuous communication Backbone support organization John Kania and Mark Kramer, Winter 2011

19 Cities Reducing Poverty 6 Case Studies Get both a bird s eye and worm s eye view Learn to navigate the local context Learn by doing Make both vertical and horizontal connections Be persistent and have appropriate expectations Cities Reducing Poverty Tamarack, October 2011.

20 Comprehensive Strategies Strategy Advantages Limitations Enabling Conditions Thousand Seeds Addresses multiple factors Scale of activities overwhelming Constellation governance Mobilizes broad support Difficult to ensure synergies Pool Ball Easy to manage Quick results Weak effects Ripple effects not always known Focus on high leverage cause and effects Weaving Addresses a network of cause and effects May not impact a large number of people Learn by doing approach Hybrid Weaves together and leverages all three strategies Difficult to manage and sustain Clear framework for change Strong leadership

21 Now What s Next?

22 The Landscape has Changed Municipally: 84 collaborative poverty reduction roundtables have connected to Vibrant Communities Provincially: 11 provinces and territories have or are developing poverty reduction strategies Federally: A new all-party Roundtable has been formed to focus on poverty, the Government of Canada HUMA committee, Senate Roundtable on Cities and Federation of Canadian Municipalities have identified poverty as a critical issue

23 Our Aspiration: Imagine 100 cities reducing poverty TOGETHER

24 Vision: To create Vibrant Communities by significantly reducing the human, social and economic costs of poverty for Canadian cities. Mission: We will create a connected learning community of 100 Canadian cities with multi-sector roundtables addressing poverty reduction. Goal: We envision aligned poverty reduction strategies in cities, provinces and the federal government resulting in reduced poverty for 1 million Canadians.

25 Cities Reducing Poverty Learning Community Priority Actions: Learning Community Development City Charter and Business Case Aligned Policy Agenda Poverty Summit Common Evaluation Framework

26 Join our Learning Community Learn together through: Blogs and Discussion Groups A library full of useful resources Subscribe to Engage! e-magazine

27 How much more information do we need to know that a hungry child will not do well in school? Stop admiring the problem and get on with the work. Mark Chamberlain CEO, Trivaris

28 Questions?