This paper has been commissioned by Prosper Canada to develop and present a working model of the relationships between financial empowerment and poverty in Canada. It reviews published, international, English-language, academic and grey literature, as well as documents provided by Prosper...

Increasing interest in the role that consumer-focused policy interventions can play in improving economic outcomes has led to a host of intervention models in recent years. Financial coaching has emerged as one prominent model in this field, aimed at improving consumer financial outcomes by using...

Financial Empowerment is an integrated set of interventions proven to measurably improve financial outcomes for people living in poverty. This brief from Prosper Canada recommends nine financial empowerment strategies that can help reduce poverty by being integrated into poverty reduction...

This new Poverty Trends Scorecard consisting of four reports now presents an update of the information on income, wealth, and inequality. Over three years later, the recovery has yet to fully take hold. The individuals and families who bore the brunt of the 2008–09 recession face continuing...

In this chapter I examine whether and how the relationship between family socioeconomic characteristics and academic achievement has changed during the last fifty years. In particular, I investigate the extent to which the rising income inequality of the last four decades has been paralleled by a...

This is the first in a series of @ Issue Papers that looks at the participation of traditionally under-represented cohorts in postsecondary education. The purpose of this @ Issue Paper is to summarize what is currently known about the participation of low-income students in PSE, with a particular...

This overview paper broadly outlines the types of strategies being used to help people move up from poverty. It lays out basic categories for classifying such programs, explains the logic of various approaches, and offers some broad pros and cons of various types of interventions. The accompanying...

The disability income system is an agglomeration of disparate programs that were designed for distinct purposes. That reality would not actually be a bad thing if at least all the pieces worked well together. A new Basic Income for persons with disabilities would enable the reform of both the...

Being homeless, whether briefly or for an extended period of time, can be profoundly distressing for whoever undergoes the experience. This portrait is the result of an exploratory study on homelessness in 13 communities representing five First Nations in Quebec. The report identifies the principal...

The gap between rich and poor is reaching new extremes. Credit Suisse recently revealed that the richest 1% have now accumulated more wealth than the rest of the world put together.1 This occurred a year earlier than Oxfam’s much publicized prediction ahead of last year’s World Economic Forum....

Good public policy matters and has been effective in reducing child poverty. Indeed, without government transfers over 2 million children would live in poverty. However, to date, policy inputs against poverty have been small and poverty reduction too limited. History has shown us that no one-off...

Low income lines are the most commonly used tool for defining and measuring poverty. They provide thresholds below which a household is considered to be living on low income. Low income lines can be constructed in different ways. This brief explains the LICO (Low income cut-off), LIM (Low income...

This working paper compares three commonly used measures of low income used in Canadian poverty analysis. It is the fourth in a series of working papers intended to promote a discussion by participants in our Sounding Board and others. Thresholds and incidences of low-income for the Low Income...

This report estimates the price of inaction. Regardless of the strategy used to address poverty, it asks, “What does it cost us to allow poverty to persist in Toronto?” It estimates how much more we may be spending in the health care and justice systems simply because poverty exists, and how...

The intention at the time of the creation of the Market Basket Measure was that the content of the basket and its definition of disposable income would be reviewed once several years of data had been collected using the original measure. This was necessary to ensure that it continued to embody a...

The Government of Canada is committed to strengthening the middle class and helping low-income Canadians exit poverty so that they have sufficient capabilities to be well and do well. To achieve this goal, we will need to form partnerships, modernize the existing landscape of supports and encourage...

Two years ago, our organizations released The Hidden Epidemic: A Report on Child and Family Poverty in Toronto, which documented the high level of child and family poverty in the City of Toronto and the widespread lack of access by children to decent housing, food, recreation and learning...

This is a report on child poverty in British Columbia and connections to the working poor, employment insecurity, living on low incomes, and gives policy recommendations to respond to this...

Grande Prairie is not unique from other communities in that poverty and its effects can pose a challenging obstacle in the journey towards sustainability. In recognition of the need to address poverty within the community, Grande Prairie’s Community Action to End Poverty (CAEP) Committee was...

In the spirit of social justice, the Commission on Social Determinants of Health was set up by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2005 to marshal the evidence on what can be done to promote health equity, and to foster a global movement to achieve it. The Commission calls on the WHO and all...

People living in poverty in Canada face multiple barriers. As a country, we can do better to address these persistent challenges. Canada needs a comprehensive national poverty reduction strategy that addresses the complex reality of...

In 2015, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 43.1 million people, or 13.5 percent of the nation’s population, lived below the official poverty level. Although the poor were primarily children and adults who had not participated in the labor force during the year, 8.6 million individuals...

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TOcore is a three-year inter-divisional initiative, led by City Planning. The purpose of the Study is to ensure growth positively contributes to Toronto’s Downtown as a great place to live, work, learn, play and invest. It will do so by determining: a) how future growth will be accommodated,...

This report explores New Zealand’s ‘Bright Spots’ – local places and community initiatives that are making a positive difference to children and families. Instead of asking about the issues and problems for ‘vulnerable children’ or ‘high-needs families’, we ask ‘what’s...