By Daniel Barker-Tremblay

Access To Supports

CAPRA determining priorities moving forward

Jan 22, 2022 | 8:17 AM

Reconvening to rebuild was the goal of a meeting held through Zoom by the Central Alberta Poverty Reduction Alliance (CAPRA) this week.

Those in attendance on Wednesday included groups of service providers and community members to discuss the topic of poverty in central Alberta.

“The intent of the meeting was to bring up what priorities are today for people who are experiencing poverty in central Alberta,” explained Lori Jack, Community Impact Manager for United Way of Central Alberta. “Reviewing based on research on poverty in the last few years, and to explore where things are at today in order to figure out where our priorities should be going forward in what CAPRA should be doing in addressing to make the community better.”

Discussion revolved around such priorities as the current living wage and income supports, along with how people can access financial supports through government and housing. Also the mention of stigma, disconnection and how agencies are working together to solve these problems.

Officials describe a living wage as the wage a person would have to earn to live in a community to meet their basic needs.

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“For Red Deer, it was calculated recently by a provincial organization, the number was $17.15 is what two parents with a household of four would each have to make working full time to be able to live in Red Deer successfully,” says Jack. “It’s above minimum wage, and lots of people who are on the lower earning wage categories often don’t have full time employment or have multiple jobs as well to make up full time employment.”

Income supports, meantime, is a provincial program that supports people who are struggling to meet their basic needs.

“It has been challenging for people to access those supports because the provincial offices are closed, so people have had to do that virtually and not everybody who is living on a low income has access to internet at home or devices that enable that,” Jack says. “It has created a challenge within the province for frontline service providers for those individuals.”

Meanwhile, the overarching term of financial empowerment is described as a fancy word that includes both the living wage and income supports.

“It’s that if you have enough money and how you can manage it in order to provide for yourself and your family,” explains Jack. “It also includes financial literacy and what you understand about savings, what are the sources of income that might be available to an individual.”

Officials add that Prosper Canada put out a calculator for all provinces on how or what you may be eligible for in terms of financial supports, both provincially and federally.

“What I want to share is that poverty is a growing challenge, if for no other reason because of the rate of inflation going up. So those that are going to make the month, five to six months ago are really struggling today. Because it’s an ongoing issue, there’s a sense of urgency,” says Jack.

For more information, visit http://capovertyreduction.ca/.