Contributed by The Community Networks Group
http://www.vibrantcommunities.ca
Canada is a country of countless opportunities. We have exceptional health, education and social programs, a robust economy and a quality of life that is envied around the world. It’s hard to think of Canada as a “poor” country. And yet more than 16% of us live in poverty. It’s a grim fact that has cast a shadow over Canadian life for more than two decades. But we believe all Canadians can and should share our good fortune.
The Vibrant Communities Initiative is a community-driven effort to reduce poverty in Canada by creating partnerships that make use of our most valuable assets: people, organizations, businesses and governments. It’s a unique approach to poverty reduction that will allow communities to learn from, and help, each other.
Vibrant Communities will link up to 15 communities from British Columbia to Newfoundland in a collective effort to test the most effective ways to reduce poverty at the grassroots level. Vibrant Communities will share its lessons learned with communities across the country so that others can build on what we know does and does not work in community-based poverty reduction.
The Edmonton Metropolitan area, Canada’s Gateway to the North, has over 940,000 residents. The city’s economy is strengthened through its role as service centre to Alberta’s oil industry, commercial services to agriculture, government, and post secondary institutions. Approximately 21.3% of Edmontonians had incomes under Statistics Canada’s Low Income Cut-Off rate in 1995…
For more information about Vibrant Communities, please visit our web site: http://www.vibrantcommunities.ca, (or) in Edmonton contact:
City of Edmonton Innovative Services
Jenny Kain @ 944-5512
