Next month, Prince George will begin a community engagement process focused on reducing poverty in the community.
City council has received the Select Committee on poverty reductions preliminary report which highlights 22 recommendations set as the focal point of the engagement processes.
Taking place in February 2021, it will place special emphasis on reaching out to those living in poverty and those with lived experience to ensure final recommendations for city actions to reduce poverty at the local level will have a positive impact.
“We are not looking for new ideas or suggestions we are looking for information specific to the recommendations,” explained the committee’s staff liaison Sarah Brown at the Jan. 11 council meeting.
“We are looking for people to provide their feedback specifically on the recommendations in two ways the first is by level of importance, what is most important to them in terms of addressing poverty and the second is by urgency."
She says the committee is looking for the public to indicate in what priority order should the city address these recommendations and advocacy.
“What should be addressed now and what should be addressed later?”
The committee first formed back in October 2019 to make recommendations regarding how the City of Prince George can support implementation of the Province’s poverty reduction strategy called TogetherBC.
The committee then met monthly from November 2019 to November 2020 to develop the recommendation’s regarding the city’s role in implementing the poverty reduction strategy.
A complementary goal of the engagement is to educate the public about the human experience of living in poverty and challenge its misconceptions.
The engagement is comprised of various components such as a survey, focus groups with agency partners’ support, and a community champion approach in order to gather a wide array of feedback on the recommendations.
“Because we want to hear from a diverse representation including those with a lived experience of poverty we are utilizing a variety of options that ensure accessibility and inclusion and that includes partnering with community agencies to support the work,” added Brown.
The engagement process is funded by the UBCM Poverty Reduction Planning and Action Grant.
"When you look at the recommendations those alone will not eradicate poverty in our community but they are in the purview of local government and I think that is really important," said Coun. Murry Krause, who is the chair of the select committee.
“The City of Prince George cannot take on the whole challenge of poverty reduction and we will depend on the engagement and partnership of the provincial and federal government to really make an impact.”
Following the consultation period, the committee will reconvene to consider feedback and amend recommendations as necessary.
A final set of recommendations will be presented to council later this year.
