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
CBC News: Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to develop memorial register of residential school deaths BC Local News: Residential school ‘monster’ now lives in child-welfare system: senator Delta Optimist: B.C. announces new transition housing for women fleeing violence Benzinga: Public education is a strong equalizing force in Canadian society, UNICEF MORE
First Call submitted our BC Budget 2019 consultation to the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services last week, which highlighted four recommendations: Enhancing and expanding BC’s child benefit to reduce family poverty Advice on the continued investments in a quality child care system Improvements to the supports for MORE
Statistics Canada is conducting a consultation to gather input from Canadians to help validate how we are measuring poverty. Recently, the Government of Canada announced that the Market Basket Measure (MBM) will be used as Canada’s Official Poverty Line. Statistics Canada is currently conducting a comprehensive review of the MBM. MORE
Vancouver Sun: Susan Russell: Youth leaving foster care need more support Markets Insider: TELUS is giving an unprecedented $120 million to help vulnerable youth reach their full potential CBC News: B.C. mother fighting to retrieve children taken to Lebanon CTV News: B.C. woman says adopted son’s citizenship not being processed, MORE
On October 15th, we submitted our recommendations to the 2019 BC Budget consultation. Our submission makes recommendations that would improve the lives of children, youth and families in BC that have been informed by our research and our member organizations on various themes. We highlight recommendations, which are followed by a list of MORE
First Call and the Living Wage for Families Campaign signed onto the open letter spearheaded by the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition to urge the Nanaimo City Council to extend the closing date of the tent city past October 12th. Following release of the letter, the City of Nanaimo announced that they will wait for MORE
Toronto.com: (Opinion) Extend Canada Child Benefit to all The Nelson Daily: Op/Ed:Progress on Child Care in BC StarMetro Vancouver: Even social-housing workers are being priced out of Vancouver Global News: Housing crunch pushing even the suburbs out of reach of B.C. families: report Times Colonist: Tent cities a ‘viable first step’ toward solving housing crisis MORE
This week, the Provincial Government announced legislation to guide BC’s first Poverty Reduction Strategy. The Poverty Reduction Strategy Act defines the goals of the strategy, which will be released in early 2019, and sets poverty reduction targets and timelines that government must meet. First Call has called for a 50% reduction in MORE
Gary Evans and Pilyoung Kim published an article to expand the conversation past how poverty affects development on parental investment and parenting practices. They wanted to study how chronic stress and coping may impact early childhood poverty throughout life. They found that disadvantaged children are more likely to confront physical and psychosocial stressors, MORE