Urban Exchange

Readers comment on Poverty in Sight

As we’d hoped, the release of Poverty in Sight: A Winnipeg Perspective has generated a lot of interest in the community. It has also generated some great comments that add to the conversation about poverty in Winnipeg.

Barry Hammond, who’s on the board of Agape Table, an inner-city soup kitchen, emailed to say that a large percentage of the people who access Agape Table’s services have or have had a mental and/or physical illness of some kind.  In Barry’s experience, this “contrasts significantly” with what Urban Exchange survey respondents said when we asked them about the most significant things that lead to poverty (4.6% of respondents listed physical/mental illness/disability).

Jonah Levine emailed with a link to a video and some questions of his own: “Does this man’s assessment reveal truth? Prescribe a more effective method of ending poverty in this world? Maybe?”

Watch the video – what do you think?

Poverty in Sight: poverty-related info and resources

More than 2800 people participated in the Urban Exchange survey Poverty: Insight & Ideas. If you’re one of those people – or if you’re here because you’ve heard about the Poverty in Sight report – you may be interested in learning more about what’s happening.

On this page, we’re linking to several sources of information about poverty and the work that’s being done to address the issue in Manitoba.

Please note: This is not an exhaustive list, so please feel free to add other information in the comments section.  Also note that Urban Exchange is providing these links as information only.

ALL Aboard: The Province of Manitoba’s Poverty Reduction Strategy(Province of Manitoba, 2009) – ALL Aboard is the provincial government’s poverty reduction strategy for everyone in Manitoba.  It outlines progress, partnerships, and next steps for poverty reduction in Manitoba based on safe, affordable housing, education, jobs and income support, strong, healthy families and accessible, co-ordinated services.

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) – an independent, non-partisan research institute concerned with issues of social and economic justice. Recent publications include.  Recent publications include a report on violence and street gangs (pdf).

Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNET) Manitoba – CCEDNET believes in sustainable and inclusive communities directing their own social, economic and environmental futures.  Locally, the network is involved in organizing activities like the CD/CED Gathering, a community event that focuses on building fairer and stronger local economies, tackling poverty and homelessness, and investing in sustainable communities.

Make Poverty History – The Canadian Make Poverty History campaign was launched in February 2005 with the support of a wide cross-section of public interest and faith groups, trade unions, students, academics, literary, artistic and sports leaders.  A local coalition of organizations makes up Make Poverty History Manitoba.

Social Planning Council of Winnipeg reports page – SPCW has been doing social issues research for several decades and describes itself as “a vehicle for citizens to explore and assess controversial issues, bring new information into public debate and help form a public consensus around progressive solutions.”

Speak Up Winnipeg – A Key Path for Communities: Addressing Poverty – through an extensive outreach process that will contribute to OurWinnipeg, a new long-term plan for the city, Speak Up Winnipeg has gathered input and identified actions that can be completed by November 2011.

The view from here: how a living wage can reduce poverty in Manitoba – this report is the result of a collaborative process with the CCPA, Social Planning Council of Winnipeg (SPCW), Winnipeg Harvest, and United Way of Winnipeg. It provides an up to date and well researched analyses of how much income Manitoban families need to live at an acceptable, but modest, level and includes the role of government initiatives such as the Child Tax Credit.

The view from here: Manitobans call for a poverty reduction plan (pdf) – CCPA and Make Poverty History Manitoba collaborated on this outline of what they consider to be the critical elements of a meaningful poverty reduction plan. Among the dozens of recommendations made in the report are a series of targets and timelines for reducing poverty in Manitoba.

Winnipeg Harvest poverty information (pdf) -this sheet contains facts and figures pertaining to hunger and child poverty.

Winnipeg Poverty Reduction Council – seeks to bring together community leaders from a variety of sectors to help support poverty reduction initiatives in our city and to develop new and innovative approaches.  The mission of the WPRC is to significantly reduce poverty in Winnipeg in hopes of creating A City Where Everyone Belongs.

What is the opposite of poverty? (Urban Exchange video)

Poverty in Sight: A Winnipeg Perspective

Last spring, Urban Exchange asked Winnipeggers to share their opinions about poverty in Winnipeg through a survey called Poverty: Insight & Ideas. Thank you to the 2854 people who participated, either online, in writing, or in person!

You can review the findings from the survey by clicking on the links below. At the bottom of this page is a link to some poverty-related resources in Winnipeg.

Download the full report – contains demographic information, along with respondents’ definitions of poverty, their opinions about what causes poverty, and their views about how serious the issue is in Winnipeg.



Definitions of poverty: age breakdown – we asked “In your opinion, what is poverty?” This interactive chart shows you how people in different age categories responded. You can also mix and match the findings, depending on which age range(s) you’re most interested in!



“How serious is poverty in Winnipeg?”: responses by neighbourhood – we asked “How serious is poverty in Winnipeg?” This chart shows you what respondents said, categorized by which part of the city they live in.



“How serious is poverty in your neighbourhood?”: responses by neighbourhood – we asked “How serious is poverty in your neighbourhood?” This chart shows you what respondents said, categorized by which part of the city they live in.



More poverty-related information and resources – there is a lot of work being done to address poverty in Winnipeg and Manitoba. The provincial government announced a poverty reduction strategy last spring, and the Winnipeg Poverty Reduction Council has brought together community leaders from a variety of sectors to formulate a coordinated approach to reducing poverty. Other groups (including the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and Social Planning Council of Winnipeg) do regular research about poverty and related social issues. Click here to learn more.

University of Winnipeg students act on their thoughts

A group of students from the University of Winnipeg’s Department of Theatre and Film have created a video with a message about poverty.

Check it out: