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There are two ways to reduce poverty:

The best way is to get money into the hands of low-income people and adopt other practical and effective measures, such as affordable housing, education and training and so on. The other way is to define poverty out of existence by statistical sleight of hand: Tell the poor, and everyone else, that the poor aren’t really poor, and hope that they just go away.

The Fraser Institute, the private-market-obsessed policy institute, opted for numerical dexterity as it published its latest research paper on poverty in Canada. Author Christopher Sarlo makes the astonishing claim that poverty in Canada has shrunk to a statistically tiny level in recent years.

The Ontario government launched its public consultation on its proposed Poverty Reduction Strategy with a few bumps this week. Closed-door, invitation-only meetings are not the best way to engage the people of Ontario, including those who have a direct experience of poverty.

There is real expertise and a great deal of wisdom from the "ground up" about practical solutions to poverty in Ontario - that's been the experience of the Wellesley Institute over the past 10 years as we have been the leader in funding community-based research. And that was the first message that we delivered to Ontario Minister Deb Matthews, who is chairing the Cabinet Committee on Poverty Reduction, during a four-hour session in Ottawa that included representatives from across the province.

Toronto City Council's powerful Executive Committee has unanimously adopted a detailed panhandling strategy that bucks the terrible trend throughout North America to criminalize activities associated with homelessness, housing insecurity and poverty. The plan recognizes that there are socio-economic and health issues that drive people to beg for change on the city's streets and, therefore, the best response is not to arrest and ticket panhandlers, but to ensure that they have access to housing, supports and income.

It was particularly heartening to see representatives from Toronto's business, tourism and entertainment all stand in support of this plan - along with the Wellesley Institute. Even Toronto Police Services spoke against criminalizing panhandling and in favour of the approach that tackles the fundamental concerns. Just one year ago, many business groups and others were clamouring for a police-led crackdown on panhandling.

The following editorial from the Toronto Star of Sunday, May 4 about says it all:

Children and Youth Services Minister Deb Matthews has begun the process of consulting with communities about how to reduce poverty in this province. But already anti-poverty groups are raising concerns about how she is going about it.

"Matthews, who heads a cabinet committee drafting the government's promised poverty reduction strategy, announced Thursday that she is holding 13 consultation meetings across the province. But the meetings are by invitation only and behind closed doors. "

That has led to fears among groups in the 25 in 5 Network for Poverty Reduction that the consultations will exclude those who need to be consulted the most: people living in poverty.

"We are glad she is getting into the field but we're concerned about how this has been organized and about getting communities engaged to take part," says Peter Clutterbuck of the Social Planning Network of Ontario, a partner in the 25 in 5 Network.

Read the full post

The Last Straw! A Board Game on the Social Determinants of Health, co-funded by the Wellesley Institute, combines is a fun way for players to learn how the daily life cycles and social conditions of individuals and communities can affect health and illness – think ‘Monopoly’ with social conscience and analysis. The Last Straw! shows how "macro" issues such as political climate, economic structure and environmental change, and "micro" issues, such as individual finances, education, and family dynamics, shape the health of both individuals and communities. It’s a tremendous health promotion tool and has been successfully used to facilitate learning on social determinants of health in practice in many settings.

Visit the Last Straw! for more information.

The City of Toronto is building a 10-year housing strategy called Housing Opportunities Toronto. The city's plan was launched one year after the Wellesley Institute released our Blueprint to End Homelessness in Toronto, which includes both the basic 10-year plan plus a much-more-detailed framework document with lots of background material. We've prepared a number of backgrounders on the HOT proposal, including recommendations to Toronto's 2008 budget process to finance the housing plan.

The City of Toronto has announced a series of public meetings to hear recommendations about the HOT plan. These include:

Wednesday, May 14 – Scarborough Civic Centre, 6:30 to 9 p.m.
Wednesday, May 28 – North York Civic Centre, 6:30 to 9 p.m.
Wednesday, June 4 – Etobicoke Civic Centre, 6:30 to 9 p.m.
Monday, June 16 – Affordable Housing Committee                       
Deputations – 1:30 p.m., City Hall, Committee Room 2

The KU Work Group on Community Health and Development provides a range of useful planning resources on community development as one crucial direction for improving population health and addressing health inequities. Established in 1975, it was designated by the World Health Organization as a WHO Collaborating Centre in 2004 Its core values and assumptions are:

Today is Earth Day 2008 - and a very happy birthday to a much-abused dear old planet Earth!

Statistics Canada has released this morning an update to its Human Activity and the Environment series that reports, among other things, that the emission of green house gases are up by 25% from 1990 to 2005. Lots more troubling indicators, including a stunning chart showing the remorseless rise in mean global temperatures.

Clean air and moderate temperatures are fundamental to good health. As Toronto braces for more smog days and extreme heat alerts, it’s important to remember that a safe and healthy environment, like most other determinants of health, is a fundamental health equity concern.

Some people in our city are more financially able to mitigate some of the worst effects of smog and heat than others (with air conditioning, vacations out of the city, etc.). 

One precondition for successfully addressing health disparities is to build on local community-based initiatives and on the needs and perspectives of local residents. Incorporating the views, experience and priorities of residents, especially from the most disadvantaged and marginalized communities, into planning and resource allocation processes is vital to regional health planning and delivery that can effectively focus on health disparities. Diversity and equity-driven community engagement is one vital enabler of successful local and regional action on health equity.

Here are two interesting resources. The first is a recent handbook from CPRN (the Canadian Policy Research Network) on citizen engagement. It reviews several health examples, including the extensive community engagement strategy developed by Vancouver Coastal Health.

The British health research and knowledge exchange foundation NICE conducted a systematic review of the impact of community engagement on addressing social determinants of health in 2007.

The Victorian Health Promotion Foundation in the state of Victoria, Australia has recently released an outline on reducing health inequities through better health promotion. People, Places, Processes: Reducing Health Inequalities Through Balanced Health Promotion Approaches provides a a good overview of the health equity lens, and elements of a strategic framework, analytical review and workbook / planning tool for health promotion approaches.

VicHealth is close to an Agency, Board or Commission in Ontario terms, was originally established as part of anti-smoking initiatives and is governed by a board appointed by the Minister of Health that also includes Members of Parliament. Reducing health inequalities is one of their program priorities.