Tackling child poverty is a daunting task, but a provincial expert said communities can be active in looking for solutions that will help struggling families.
Adrienne Montani, program coordinator for First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition, will be part of an upcoming event entitled Challenging Child Poverty: What Can Powell River Do?
“Our 2015 report card on child poverty showed that one in five children in BC live in poverty,” said Montani. “That works out to 167,810 kids in the province.”
First Call is a coalition including over 95 member organizations advocating for the rights and well-being of all BC children and youth, including first nations and immigrant families.
Montani said that among the children living in poverty some groups of children are considered more at-risk than others.
“Those overrepresented would be children in single-parent families, particularly single-mother families who have a one-in-two chance of being poor,” she said. “Some other overrepresented groups would be First Nations, both on and off reserve.”
Montani added that children with disabilities and immigrant families also have a higher poverty rate.
“When we look at these groups we can see that there are systemic issues at work that make some families more vulnerable to being in poverty than just their personal choices or happenstance,” she said. “An example is we don’t support single parents very well and problems around childcare come up.”
This is a large problem that Montani said needs large solutions and she wants to help encourage communities to be active in addressing child poverty.
“I want to mobilize people and give government permission to take some more bold steps,” she said.
In an effort to engage Powell River residents, Montani, along with Lyn Adamson, executive director of Powell River Employment Program Society, and Russell Brewer, City of Powell River councillor, will be part of Challenging Child Poverty panel discussion, organized by community group Powell River Voices.
“We’re trying to make it as easy as possible for citizens of Powell River to be engaged in the issues that affect them,” said Murray Dobbin, member of Powell River Voices steering committee. “It’s not always easy to get involved in things, and it’s hard to educate yourself on issues, because everyone is running as fast as they can. They have jobs and families, so what we’re trying to do is make it as easy as possible for people to play a part
in their community.”
Even though child poverty is a provincial issue, Dobbin said Powell River has one of the highest child poverty rates in BC.
According to Powell River’s Vital Signs 2015, the city’s child poverty rate is “substantially higher than the national and provincial rates, and it’s gotten worse over the last several years.”
Dobbin said despite the prevalence of child poverty in our community, it’s an issue that isn’t often discussed.
“We live in a community that really cares, and our assumption is that we think people will want to be involved in this and to see what we can do as a community to address the issue,” he said.
The panel discussion will be held Tuesday, March 1 at 7 pm at the United Church Trinity Hall and will address child poverty and issues around topics such as childcare and housing.
For more information on the child-poverty discussion go to prvoices.org.
