Media Release For immediate release March 18, 2019 BC Poverty Reduction Strategy Offers Initiatives That Will Help Lift Families Out of Poverty (Vancouver) Today, government released BC’s first ever poverty reduction strategy TogetherBC setting out a number of strategies and initiatives aimed at meeting legislated poverty reduction targets including a MORE
Too many parents and guardians in Canada still can’t find affordable child care for their kids – with today’s young families still relying on the patchwork of inadequate solutions of their parents’ generation. Child Care Now is hosting The Affordable Child Care for All Plan that calls for accessible child care for MORE
Spotlight: Child Welfare is a collaborative journalism project that aims to deepen and improve reporting on B.C.’s child welfare system. Their goals are to produce in-depth, nuanced, data-driven and solutions‑oriented reporting about B.C.’s child‑welfare system, and to develop a model for collaborative journalism projects that folks can use in other regions MORE
The big news for families with children is that starting in October 2020 a new B.C. Child Opportunity Benefit will replace the Early Childhood Tax benefit. In our annual Child Poverty Report Card we have been calling for improvements to this benefit for years. BC is the only province MORE
The BC Poverty Reduction Coalition collaborated with partners in developing a discussion paper based on key concerns and observations collected over years of working on assistance issues with people seeking MCFD services. The paper includes 31 specific and achievable recommendations for the Ministry so that those seeking help have their needs met MORE
Food Banks Canada’s HungerCount2018 Report includes powerful recommendations to governments including a call to Support the Creation of Standardized, Affordable Early Learning and Childcare Across the Country. Read the full report and four public policy recommendations that would decrease Canadians’ reliance on food banks. In BC, 31% of food bank users were families with MORE
The Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness is seeking presenters for the 2019 National Conference on Ending Homelessness in Edmonton, Alberta – November 4-6, 2019. They are inviting proposal submissions on a range of topics including Youth Homelessness. Apply online here.
Are you between the ages of 13 to 25 with lived experience of homelessness or housing insecurity? The Representative for Children and Youth wants to hear from you about what needs to happen to end youth homelessness in B.C. Participate in a 5 to 10 minute survey about your experiences MORE
This week Health Canada released a revised Canada Food Guide. The revised guide steers away from food groups and portion sizes but recommends more fruits and vegetables, whole grains and puts an emphasis on plant-based proteins. With one in every six Canadian children living in households that are food insecure, the revised Food MORE
On July 3, 2018 the Province announced the creation of an expert committee to study the potential for using a basic income approach in its efforts to reduce poverty and prepare for the emerging economy. Organizations and individuals with an interest in basic income are invited to share their input MORE
CHEK: West Coast LEAF says further progress is needed for B.C. to meet international women’s rights obligations Tri-City News: PoMo council wants free transit for youth APTN National News: ’A turning point’: New Indigenous child welfare legislation will save lives says Philpott The Tyee: Good Intentions on Indigenous Child Welfare MORE
Solving the challenges of poverty requires all three levels of government working in collaboration. The BC Poverty Reduction Coalition launched a campaign to help align municipal commitments with provincial and federal strategies, which includes a toolkit to explain what municipalities can and can’t do to prevent and reduce poverty in MORE
CBC News: ‘There’s so many kids dying’: Mother says anti-gang program that saved her son desperately needs funding CBC News: Child poverty decreasing ‘pitifully slowly’ in B.C., report finds Vancouver Sun: B.C. child poverty figures remain bad, but report sounds note of optimism The Tyee: Whose Children Are Growing Up MORE
On Monday November 5, the Legislative Assembly of BC voted unanimously to approve the Poverty Reduction Strategy Act. This is an exciting next step towards eliminating poverty in BC, especially noting that the Act calls for a 50% reduction of child poverty in BC by 2024. A late amendment to the MORE
The British Columbia Centre for Disease Control collaborated to release the Food Costing in BC 2017 report earlier this month. Please share this report and infographic which demonstrate that 1 in 6 BC children live in homes that struggle to feed them well. Food insecurity negatively affects maternal health, birth outcomes, mental, emotional and MORE