Forum addresses poverty and housing

December 4, 2015 · 0 Comments

A forum addressing poverty and housing in Dufferin County was held at the Salvation Army Church on Riddell Road on Tuesday, November 24th.
The forum was organized by the Headwaters Food and Farming Alliance (HFFA), Food Education Literacy and Access team. According to Shirley Boxem Managing Director of Headwaters’ Communities in Action, the umbrella organization for HFFA, the purpose of the forum was to facilitate the “process of collective impact to identify and agree on what poverty looks like in Dufferin, and then engage multiple sectors to garner commitment and identify action items.”
Kathryn MacDonald, HFFA Food Access Lead and Member of the Dufferin Poverty and Housing Forum Working Group told the Shelburne Free Press there were three key objectives for the forum. “The first objective was to share local data and personal experiences with poverty in Dufferin County to give poverty a face in our area and illustrates its impacts.”
She said the second objective was “to learn from other communities how they have taken action on poverty elimination in a solution focused manner.” Randalin Ellery coordinator with the Guelph Poverty Task Force and Laura Catarri of the Hamilton Round Table on Poverty both shared successes and challenges along their respective community’s journey towards poverty elimination.
The third objective of the forum was “to gage interest and commitment at a multi sector level to move forward and begin to identity actions in the areas such as employment, housing, food and transportation and otherwise determined as priorities for our community.”
MacDonald said goals of the forum included “the formation of a steering committee that will go about identifying and inviting key decision makers to a Poverty Table in Dufferin and that Poverty Table will be supported by a coordinator. The Poverty Table will go about the work of identifying priorities actions and develop and implement a work plan to accomplish the actions.”
She reports, “The forum was successful at drawing in a diverse range of community members – service organizations, local business, education and municipal government and individuals to hear about local lived experience with poverty and poverty reduction initiatives in surrounding communities. The day was an important step forward in recognizing poverty within Dufferin, its impacts and taking a reading on the desire and need to move into action for the well being of our community.”
“It will be exciting to watch a Dufferin Poverty Reduction Strategy begin to take shape with the striking of a Poverty Reduction Steering Committee and eventual Task Force,” she said.

By Marni Walsh