Urban Exchange

ALL Aboard: Province announces new poverty reduction strategy

This will be interesting – and welcome – news to everyone who participated in the recent Urban Exchange survey on poverty in Winnipeg:

Yesterday, Finance Minister Greg Selinger and Family Services and Housing Minister Gord Mackintosh announced ALL Aboard, a new poverty-reduction strategy that will include $212 million in new investments. ALL Aboard has four priorities: to create more affordable housing, strengthen training and income supports, enhance child development, and ease access to co-ordinated services and programs.

Mackintosh is quoted in the government news release:

“Manitoba’s child poverty rate has decreased by 40 per cent since 2000. This is unprecedented progress. However, too many Manitobans still cannot participate in the general prosperity. With an unsettled economy, which can unexpectedly imperil any family, we must co-ordinate the way we tackle the roots of poverty for the good of all Manitobans.”

Also quoted in the release are Jim Carr and Cindy Coker, Co-Chairs of the Winnipeg Poverty Reduction Council and Susan Lewis, President of United Way of Winnipeg.

Your views can help to inform efforts to reduce poverty in Winnipeg and Manitoba. Urban Exchange is looking forward to compiling and sharing the findings of the recent survey on poverty with as many decision-makers as possible, including leaders in our provincial and municipal governments, non-profit, business and labour leaders, and cross-sectoral groups like the Winnipeg Poverty Reduction Council.

For more details on yesterday’s announcement, please check out:

• Manitoba Government news release on the poverty reduction strategy
• Story and quotes on United Way of Winnipeg’s website
• Winnipeg Free Press coverage
• Comments from the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce

Results: where does the money go?

2,500+ complete poverty survey

Thank you Winnipeg! The response to Urban Exchange’s latest survey Poverty: Insights and Ideas has been overwhelming. Those who responded told us about their definitions of poverty and how serious the issue of poverty in Winnipeg is to them. All of the respondents put in a great deal of care and their answers are very thoughtful. We can’t wait to share them with you and the rest of the community!

Something that really caught our eye was that so far 7 out of 10 respondents told us that their life, or the life of someone they know, has been affected by poverty. This tells us that poverty has a far reach and requires close examination.

We are compiling the rest of the results as fast as possible; we have a lot of information to analyze as we had over 2,500 respondents share their thoughts with us in just 4 weeks! Poverty is something that must be on the minds of those who comprise the most generous city in Canada.

This fabulous response garnered by using several different ways of questioning including classroom presentations, soliciting responses at various agencies and other locations across the city, face-to-face interviews, social networking websites and mail in responses.

We would like to send out our most sincere thanks to those who contributed to this community discussion and to those who helped us garner such a great response.

Fantastic response to poverty survey, more opinions needed

UPDATE (May 9): The survey is now closed.  Thanks to the more than 2300 Winnipeggers who participated!

In the last two weeks, almost 1700 Winnipeggers have responded to the Urban Exchange poverty survey with enthusiasm and a lot of sincere thought. THANK YOU to everyone who’s shared their opinions so far.

The poverty survey is open until May 8th. If you haven’t weighed in yet, please take five minutes to participate.

We want to hear from everyone – if you know of a group we should reach out to, we’re open to your suggestions! Here’s a snapshot of how the survey has been shared so far:

• With students – - we’ve been out to University of Manitoba, University of Winnipeg, and Red River College. In total more than 200 post-secondary students have participated so far.
• With workplaces and labour unions – hundreds of employees have completed the survey because they received an invitation to participate.
• Through local media – the Winnipeg Free Press and the Canstar Weeklies generously donated space to print the survey so that all of their readers would have access to it.
• Through blogs, Twitter and Facebook – local blog ChrisD.ca featured the survey a couple of weeks ago. Winnipeg 0′ My Heart linked out to MyCityMySay.ca, driving traffic to our site and helping to build awareness about Urban Exchange. Winnipeg Twitter users shared the survey with their friends (thanks @AceBurpeeShow, @DZanke, @scrapbuker, @CMBSCca and anyone else we’ve missed!) And a lot of folks have posted a link to the survey on their Facebook profiles.
• In person – thanks to a handful of local community groups, we’re training community residents to interview their friends and neighbours.

We’re also setting up at various locations around the city – the Ellice Café & Theatre is just one example. We’ll be there on May 4 from 8:30 – 10:30 am. Coffee’s on us if you fill out a survey while you’re there.

New survey on poverty in Winnipeg

UPDATE: This survey is now closed.  Thanks to everyone who participated!  Please stay tuned for results.

All Winnipeggers are invited to fill out the new Urban Exchange survey! Poverty: Insight & Ideas is the first in a series of short surveys about poverty. Over the next four weeks, you’ll have an opportunity to share your ideas about what poverty means and how serious it is your city and your community.

Why are we focusing on poverty? A Statistics Canada report in 2006, found that 136 000 people in Winnipeg are living in poverty, including more than 30 000 children. Urban Exchange participants – there are more than 4500 of them so far – have consistently said that poverty is one of their top concerns.

Poverty can mean different things to different people. In order to effectively address poverty, we need to talk about it. This short survey is the beginning of a conversation – in time, we’ll also be asking for ideas about solutions.

To participate in this conversation:

• Watch for the survey in your Winnipeg Free Press newspaper on April 7
• Click here to fill out the survey online
• Give us a call at 477-5360 and we’ll mail the survey to you

Thanks for taking the time to participate in Urban Exchange!

Conversation is strong on Winnipeg blogs

We often describe Urban Exchange as a dynamic conversation between Winnipeggers and United Way about the issues that are most important to us.

There’s another dynamic, engaging online conversation happening in Winnipeg that you should know about. Media personalities, well-known journalists, bloggers, and other Winnipeg residents are weighing in on the issues in the Winnipeg blogosphere – all of them contributing to the conversation in their own unique way.

Below are a few of the sites Urban Exchange has been following lately.  Most of the time, they focus on the things that people usually talk about – politics, urban issues, the weather, etc.  These days, a lot of the talk is flood-related.

Let’s kick things off with West End Dumplings, written by a West End resident who focuses mostly on local issues.  He’s also got a Winnipeg history blog and a new site that commemorates the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike.

Then there’s the PolicyFrog, another local news blogger who thrilled online audiences in Winnipeg by filling in for Vic Grant on CJOB’s “Excuse Me” last week.

At ChrisD.ca, writers have been following and adding to local flood coverage.

Winnipeg Free Press writers are online in a big way, adding a personal take to their reporting over the past couple of years.   Dan Lett talks politics and current events at The Sausage Factory.  Nick Martin takes you inside the education beat at Telling Tales Out Of School.  Check out Blog Central for a complete listing of WFP blogs.

Winnipeg: Love & Hate is a beautiful photo blog by Bryan Scott, who features local architecture – some of it’s well-known but often he’s got photos of buildings you’ve probably never noticed before.  It’s definitely worth checking out.

Twitter is a popular online space these days.  To see what Winnipeggers are saying about floodfighting efforts, here’s a great place to start.

Another place to participate in the conversation about urban issues is New Winnipeg, an online forum that’s been around for several years.

This isn’t an exhaustive list, but it’s a start.  The beauty of the blogosphere is that you can follow the conversation from one site to another – eventually you’ll find a few sites you’re interested in following on a regular basis.

(Note: please keep in mind that the sites we link to at MyCityMySay.ca do not represent the views of United Way of Winnipeg – please see the Disclaimer for more detail.)

United Way publishes 2008 Environmental Scan

Every few years, United Way of Winnipeg produces an environmental scan.  This document pulls together relevant information – including demographic, economic and social trends – that help to inform the work of board members, volunteers and staff at United Way.

The information in the 2008 scan is drawn from a wide range of sources, including Census data, newspapers, and research done by other organizations, including government.

The document is available to anyone who’s interested in reading it. Many of the social issues highlighted in the scan are issues that have been raised by Urban Exchange participants. Here’s a sample of the topics covered in the scan:

Demographic and social trends

• The Aboriginal community
• Tomorrow’s seniors
• Poverty
• Crime and youth gangs

Economic trends

• The economy
• Manitoba’s labour force

To download the scan, please visit the United Way of Winnipeg website.

Toronto Star article on Winnipeg

A recent article in the Toronto Star highlights several of the things we’ve loved about our city all along. Yes, it’s cold during the winter, but if you’ll spend the time looking for great things to do, you’ll be richly rewarded.

Writer Noah Richler and his wife chose to spend their anniversary in Winnipeg – four days of “Canadian winter madness” – and had a fantastic experience. Not surprisingly, they discovered many of the things that Winnipeggers have been talking about to anyone who will listen – great restaurants, “a very rich and substantial cultural life”, the Exchange District, and the affordability of living here.

While some of the activities Richler writes about are out of reach for people on a tight budget, this sentence also applies to the hundreds of free activities that we enjoy:

If authentic discovery, rather than easy conversation about some proven trendy destination is what you want, then here is a city that absolutely must be visited.

There are still a few weeks (give or take) of winter left to enjoy. Next comes spring, and after that, another fabulous Winnipeg summer. What are you hoping to discover here?

Please let us know in the comments.

More info:

Noah Richler: Warming up to Winter-Peg – Toronto Star, March 5, 2009

Richler/Toronto Star article found via West End Dumplings, a Winnipeg blog.

(Note: please keep in mind that the sites we link to at MyCityMySay.ca do not represent the views of United Way of Winnipeg – please see the Disclaimer for more detail.)

Where does the money go?

Food, rent, transportation. How much does the average family need to spend? Fill in the boxes below or leave a comment to let us know what you think – there aren’t any right or wrong answers but we’ll show you some examples when you’re done!

We know that families come in many shapes and sizes – for the sake of consistency, please consider this family of four to be two adults and two school-aged children.

Exchanges newsletter – January 2009

What’s new at Urban Exchange? What’s being planned for the first part of 2009? Catch up on the latest information in the new issue of Exchanges, a newsletter for Urban Exchange participants.

In this issue, we will:

• Show you how new and increased United Way investments reflect Urban Exchange responses
• Give you a sneak peek at findings from Exchange Two: Exploring Our Values
• Introduce you to your new Urban Exchange Manager.

Click here to download the pdf version or read it online.

As always, please feel free to let us know what you think by emailing us or leaving a comment below.