Vibrant Communities Canada has partnered with organizations across Canada, including many Community Foundations, on a nine-year experiment that demonstrates the positive impacts of an innovative and collaborative approach to fighting poverty that is driving individual benefits, neighbourhood changes and large-scale community poverty reductions.
For nearly a decade now, a wide range of partners, including Community Foundations, have formed leadership tables in more than a dozen communities across Canada, giving new momentum to the work of poverty reduction. More than a hope or a dream, they have made it a living, breathing reality.
Joined by the Vibrant Communities initiative, citizens of all income levels, community workers, business people and representatives from all levels of government are clarifying needs, identifying community assets and developing tangible strategies for tackling poverty.
Our experience is proving an important role for place-based strategies when it comes to reducing poverty. Community collaboration is showing promising and powerful results. Community Foundations have played a critical role in many cities, including Hamilton Community Foundation, which has played a leadership role in convening and leading the award-winning coalition in Hamilton.
The Edmonton Community Foundation sits on the leadership body and contributes broadly to the work in that city. The Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundation was involved with the leadership roundtable for Opportunities Waterloo Region. The Niagara Community Foundation was also involved with Opportunities Niagara.
Launched in 2002, Vibrant Communities Canada builds on learning generated by Opportunities 2000, a millennium campaign to reduce poverty in Waterloo Region to the lowest in Canada, which earned a place in the United Nations Top 40 Projects Worldwide.
The Vibrant Communities approach emphasizes collaboration and consensus building across sectors; comprehensive thinking and action; building community assets; and a commitment to long-term learning and change. It is a self-fuelling change model where progress creates greater capacity, leading to new programs and more systematic interventions. The end result is improved lives and less people living in poverty.
Together, Vibrant Communities partners have:
· Launched 164 poverty reduction initiatives
· Reduced poverty for more than 170,000 households in Canada
- Raised $19.5 million, most of it in local communities
- Engaged 1,690 organizations as partners, including more than 500 businesses
- Mobilized 1,080 individuals as partners, including 573 people living in poverty
- Driven 35 substantive government policy changes
We invite you to read the report, read the executive summary of the report, visit the VC Evaluation webpage and learn about the Vibrant Communities experience.
Paul Born directs Tamarack – An Institute for Community Engagement, a ten year journey and partnership with Alan Broadbent of the Avana Capital Corporation and Maytree Foundation to advance place based solutions to entrenched problems like poverty
No comments:
Post a Comment