Mark Cabaj

Cities Reducing Poverty

Mark Cabaj

This book explores the efforts of collaborative groups in six different Canadian cities as they work to reduce poverty, as part of Vibrant Communities, a cross-Canada effort of many cities to reduce poverty in Canada by creating partnerships that make use of the most important assets – people, organizations, businesses, and governments. The six groups in this group are: a project that seeks to get long-term unemployed job seekers trained and transported to jobs across the sprawling region of Niagara; a coalition pressing Calgary City Council to pass (and maintain) a subsidized bus pass for people with low incomes; a grassroots network of citizens' partnership clubs in Montréal working to turn around a forgotten neighbourhood; an unusual collection of local organizations in Surrey working to get homeless day labourers back into the mainstream; a high-level roundtable of civic leaders in Hamilton mobilizing the community to make it the best place to raise a child; and a business-led group in Saint John that aims to reduce that city's poverty rate by one half.