Thank you, Monica.
Several of our member community foundations across the country, most notably in Winnipeg and Hamilton, have taken on large-scale, multi-year, comprehensive strategic approaches to reducing poverty in their communities. Community Foundations of Canada, in its work to support other community foundations across the country to undertake such work, has pulled together some of the lessons learned from them into a web-based toolkit, if you will, which we'll circulate some information about. It's called “From Good Causes to Root Causes”, and it's for the use of community foundations and other funders in Canada.
More recently, the Government of New Brunswick has invited community foundations in that province to get their input into shaping a province-wide poverty reduction initiative and playing a leadership role in implementing the resulting strategy. In short, for several years, tackling poverty has been at the heart of our social justice philanthropy, and our comments today draw from that work.
The interest of this committee is in how the federal government can contribute to reducing poverty across the country and in hearing about innovative solutions for dealing with this important problem. Community foundations, and it's important to note this, are not front-line organizations and do not work directly on poverty reduction services or programs. But we have a unique bird's-eye perspective on trends and priorities in communities and the rich and broad approaches to real change that are taking place. While broad improvement to national programs like EI and the resources to aboriginal communities are needed, the federal government also has a role to play in community-based approaches, and that's what we're going to talk about a little more specifically.
As community foundations across the country do our work, several things are clear. The problem of poverty is complex. It is a long-term problem and it requires long-term solutions. Getting to know the players--both professionals or experts and people living in poverty--establishing trust, learning about what organizations and individuals are doing, and creating transparent processes are essential and take time.
We have to provide short-term solutions and support while taking on long-term commitments to explore and fix deep systemic issues. Embedding programs and initiatives in existing local institutions such as libraries, community centres, schools, etc., really helps with sustainability. No amount of money on its own will fix the problem of poverty. Identifying the strengths of all people and building on them, valuing and respecting citizens, embracing public policy that speaks to justice and equity, and fostering a culture of hope are just a few of the many other elements needed to address poverty.
Poverty is an issue that must be addressed through multiple simultaneous interventions, and there is a distinct role for the non-governmental sector and the philanthropic sector, and there's a role in creating complementarity between all these things.
Importantly, there is a constant pressure to invest in programs, particularly in programs that focus on alleviation, but there is an equal need to focus on the coordination and thinking about what those systemic responses are so that we really change the situation for people rather than just alleviate. We have to resist, though not ignore, the need for alleviation in the short term.
Poverty is most prevalent among certain parts of our population. This committee will be aware of that--women, the elderly, recent immigrants, etc.
Finally, this is something that community foundations are quite active in; data and knowledge are a strategic asset. Comprehensive data about poverty in communities can be key to choosing an approach, building shared ideas, and measuring progress. The federal government as a collector of national data has a key role in making that data available to communities at no or low cost and in a timely way.
Earlier we mentioned that community foundations are not front-line service providers. While this is true, as Monica outlined, we do have some very important channels and perspectives for understanding what's happening in communities. One interesting and strong example is the Hamilton Community Foundation, which is the co-convenor of the Hamilton Round Table for Poverty Reduction. It brings together business leaders, government, the not-for-profit sector, educators, people living in poverty, philanthropists, and other local leaders to take up the challenge of, in their own words, making Hamilton the best place to raise a child.
It's through this partnership, the round table, that they have developed individual solutions at the community level, while at the same time focusing on policies and systems at the higher level. After a long collaborative and consultative process to develop its changed framework, the round table has identified what it calls its five critical points of investment, most of which would and should include a role for the federal government. They are: quality early learning, which would include neighbourhood hubs in low-income neighbourhoods; skills through education, activity, and recreation, both in and out of school; targeted skills development, with a special focus on youth; employment, with a particular focus on opportunities for meaningful employment for new immigrants; asset-building and wealth creation, helping low-income people build savings and assets that would allow them to move through the housing continuum, social housing, rental housing, and eventually possible home ownership.
In closing, these are the priorities and actions that have been identified by one specific community through a community process. But similar lists would be seen in many places, and similar processes as have been undertaken in Hamilton could take place. Community Foundations are prepared to play a role in developing and implementing solutions, as well as processes for developing these solutions, and we're committed to poverty reduction as a goal in all of our communities.
Thank you very much.