Cities Connect June 2016

The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.
- Dr. Cindy Blackstock

Hi there,

Reflecting on the inspiring keynote address that Dr. Blackstock delivered during the April 2016 Cities Reducing Poverty Summit, FCM's Brock Carlton remarked:

"It takes courage to find the truth and courage to be curious; it takes courage to accept the answers that show us reality, and courage to accept that the status quo isn't good enough."

This is true about the poverty reduction movement in a broad sense, but also applies to our work on a micro-level. As community leaders and practitioners, we are accountable to funders and stakeholders, we are accountable to ourselves, and we are especially accountable to people living in poverty. We know our programs, services, and policies must actually impact our target groups and we must have the courage to be curious, to find the truth, and to accept that the status quo is not good enough. To approach our work in any other way would be a disservice.

In order to create impact we need to work curiously and seek answers by evaluating the work we are already doing. This is why June is evaluation month at Vibrant Communities Canada. We have new learning events and resources lined up to help you make effective use of your evaluation investments. We will help you find answers to your questions, show you how to capitalize on strengths and resources that your organization already has, and share powerful stories that will teach and inspire.

Next month's issue of Cities Connect will focus on mobilizing and engaging youth in our poverty reduction strategies. If you have any blogs, stories, news or links you would like to contribute to the newsletter, please contact natasha@tamarackcommunity.ca.

Sincerely,

The Vibrant Communities Canada Team

Feature

Sharing Successes from Saint John, New Brunswick

At the beginning of April we were moved by a message of resilience from Saint John's (then) Mayor Mel Norton, as he spoke of ending generational poverty through the community's leadership. We heard about Saint John's struggle with child and youth poverty rates, and how the city is moving towards collaborative work and investments in neighbourhoods to improve the health and well-being of residents. Learn from Living SJ's Executive Director, Cathy Wright, about how their 14-year old initiative is changing and responding to the community and growing into a city-wide collaboration that is dedicated to moving the needle on poverty.

What Cathy Wright is saying about collective priority development

The Evaluation Station

Melanie Heintz is Living SJ's lead evaluator, working with the group through the development and implementation phases of their new collective impact initiative. She has led non-profit organizations, businesses, governments, and educators to create shared indicators and frameworks, and is sharing the top three resources that informed the development of Living SJ's evaluation.

Get Melanie's Top 3 Resources for Collective Impact Evaluation

You can also catch up with Melanie in this month's webinar on lessons in evaluation for the non-profit sector

News, Resources, and Tools

All About Poverty Reduction Strategies

Oakville's Mayor calls on the business sector to reduce poverty: 'If Oakville can't fix poverty... no one can'
Find out how the Canada Learning Bond can be a part of your multi-sectoral poverty reduction strategy, and access tools to get started

Income Security Initiatives

A cost of living eye-opener: based on the B.C. Government's calculator, a teacher and single mother of two, cannot make ends meet in Vancouver or Revelstoke
A case for the living wage by Nelson City Councillor Anna Purcell
An analysis: The growing gap between trends in income and consumer debt
A social assistance poverty gap report for Ontario, by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA)
Learn how living wage initiatives are developing across the province of Ontario
Guelph-Wellington welcomes Grosche, their first retail living wage employer

Inclusion and Collaboration

Our Municipal Government Representatives community of practice has developed a resource library on municipal social inclusion policy
Learn how the nonprofit sector can use non-technical skills to do good, effective, and efficient evaluation
Moving On: A toolkit for multi-sectoral partnerships from pre-contact to exit strategies

Policy Monitoring

Nova Scotia releases details on affordable child care strategy and says we can expect affordability for families and increased wages for early childhood educators
Vancouver's housing crisis: Mayor Robertson calls for new taxes to stall rising housing prices and the CCPA of B.C. recommends expanding our public housing supply
One-in-eight children in Toronto are food insecure and charity alone won't fix the problem
Ontario takes next steps on the Relief Subway Line, creating access to jobs and education
A Retirement Pension Plan for Ontario has been approved and will offer coverage to millions
Nunavut proposes changes to income assistance programs

Get Involved

A Tamarack Institute Feature Webinar

Evaluations that Work: What the Non-Profit Sector can Learn from the Ontario Nonprofit Network and Vibrant Communities Canada
Wednesday, June 22nd | 12:00 - 1:00 pm EDT

Evaluations “work” when they lead to insight and action. We all know that the process can be resource-intensive, so it is important for us to maximize the probability of getting it right! In this webinar, two leading learning institutes, the Ontario Nonprofit Network (ONN) and Tamarack's Vibrant Communities Canada, will unpack real-life stories from Cities Reducing Poverty members to identify cases where evaluation worked really well.

Register Now

Featured Community of Practice

Poverty Reduction from a First Nations, Metis and Inuit Worldview
Tuesday, July 12th | 11:00 am - 12:00 pm EDT

Tuesday, June 21st is National Aboriginal Day in Canada. Events in your local region can provide connections for Indigenous individuals who are disconnected from their home community or living on low income. You can find a list of activities happening across Canada for National Aboriginal Day here. Our community of practice is currently creating a learning agenda for the second half of 2016 and welcoming new members and new topics for discussion.

Join the Group

Community Change Institute
Toronto, Ontario | September 26-30, 2016

This face-to-face event is a truly transformational experience being hosted by Tamarack Institute in Toronto, Ontario this fall. Our 5-day learning experience will bring you the latest thinking in collective impact, collaborative leadership, community innovation, community engagement, and evaluating community impact. We have a great line-up of world renowned speakers who will take us through the art of disruption, and how it applies to our community change work.

Tamarack event alumni and Vibrant Communities - Cities Reducing Poverty members are eligible for a special 2-for-1 discount to attend the Community Change Institute!

Register Now

Optimize Your Impact

Join the 50+ cities, towns, regions, provinces and territories that are already members of Vibrant Communities - Cities Reducing Poverty, a learning community and movement aimed at reducing poverty for 1 million Canadians through aligned poverty reduction strategies at the municipal, provincial and federal levels. Benefits of membership include access to poverty indicator data, professional and peer coaching, free seats to the annual Cities Reducing Poverty face to face gathering, online seminars and practice calls, access to fundraising and evaluation support, and full access to the online learning community at www.vibrantcanada.ca.

Download our brochure and connect with Kirsti Battista, Manager of Cities at kirsti@tamarackcommunity.ca or 647 213 6757.