In this second installment of a multi-part series, United Way of Calgary and Area continues to look at inflation and its burdensome effect on everyone, but particularly lower-to-middle-income households in our community. In part one (Beyond bank balances: Examining Calgary’s inflation crisis), we looked at inflation in Calgary and how it’s creating desperate situations in many households.
Big problems need big, collaborative solutions
Think of a time you had to do something hard. Did you do it alone, or with the help of other people? Extra hands, support and ideas help us tackle the big things in life—and the social sector is no different. As Calgary climbs out of the pandemic smack into the face of staggering inflation,–the obstacles and challenges are huge, necessitating equally far-reaching, cross-sector/multi-partner solutions.
United Way’s Community Impact Framework does just that, with its investments in social sector initiatives that are collaborative and innovative and that address multiple social issues, many of which have been significantly worsened by the pandemic and inflation.
By forming partnerships with community agencies and organizations, we can draw upon a range of experience, perspective, and expertise to identify long-term, workable strategies that are designed to change the systems. Community Hubs–initially a partnership of United Way, The City of Calgary and Rotary Clubs of Calgary–is a good example of working together to build strong communities and meet needs with accessible supports and services.
Essentially, the solutions go beyond the results of the problems to the core causes, and then effect positive change. For our current situation of pandemic-followed-by-massive-inflation, this is exactly what’s needed.
Partners for the future: who’s making a difference
Partnership is something that Momentum understands well. They are a local change-making organization that takes an economic approach to poverty reduction and adds a social perspective to it.
“We work with folks who are really eager to move toward a sustainable livelihood and the majority of our work is direct programming with individuals who are ready to take that leap,” says Carolyn Davis, director of Community Engagement at Momentum. “The programs we offer focus on financial empowerment, like growing their knowledge and confidence, foundational money management skills, budgeting, saving, credit, how the banking system works, and consumerism.”
But beyond the individual, they are also working on creating a more inclusive economy that is locally focused, sustainability-minded and open to new entrepreneurs.
“We could do programming forever and we would still have poverty as a problem in our community,” she says. “We work at a systems level to shift the policies and systems that are making poverty worse, exacerbating it and holding the status quo.”
Breaking past the status quo is something the team at YW Calgary is well-versed in, especially its effect on women in the community. Women were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, with their labour force participation dropping to a 30-year low at the onset. And while their labour force participation has since risen, childcare, upskilling needs, and gaps between men and women’s pay show that women still need a more level playing field.
It’s why YW Calgary, the city’s largest and longest-serving women’s organization, developed their Women’s Economic Prosperity Strategy.
“We recognize that doing intervention work to help women combat their barriers is just cycling women through programs,” says Esther Elder, manager of YW Calgary’s strategy. “We looked at using a preventative lens on this strategy, saying, ‘What about young women who don’t see themselves as vulnerable or barriered; how can we equip them to have financial resiliency, to see them through the tough times? How do we help build and empower them so they can make the financial choices to achieve their ambitions?’”
For many women, acquiring skills and knowledge in economics and finance helps build their confidence overall, leading to better and healthier relationships.
“We are making sure that what we deliver allows for that confidence. How do we build that into everything, because without women feeling confident, you won’t see a behavioural change and without that, how do you become a role model or mentor?” Elder asks.
Elder shares that YW Calgary reaches out to women in the community regularly to ask what they need to achieve financial sustainability.
“It’s more than just setting up budget,” she says. “We talk about opening a bank account and the fundamentals of finances. It’s looking further out to equip them with the skills and tools they need to not just achieve financial stability now, but throughout their lives,” says Elder.
Salimah Kassam, leader of Rise Calgary-a social profit organization in Calgary-agrees.
“Social capital and economic capital do go hand in hand,” she says. “If your social networks are in the same context as you are, if you’re in the poverty context, then it’s not going to work, and so all of our programming follows those design principles.”
One of the most pervasive issues arising from the inflation crisis in Calgary is housing-many people are struggling to pay rent or find affordable housing. Calgary Housing Company is a unit of The City of Calgary that offers affordable housing and rent supplement programs to tackle it.
“Our wait list has gone up substantially over the last couple of years and we’re finding in the last four months, we’re seeing a big increase because the rental market has taken a real turn,” says Robin Gautron, rent supplement coordinator with Calgary Housing.
“We’re increasing rents in the open market. A lot more people are reaching out to us. We are noticing a lot of those working families that are just not making ends meet.”
Moving the conversation forward
So, where do we go from here? The Bank of Canada says that inflation rates are not going down anytime soon, and people have been struggling for months.
Enough for All (E4A) is a city-wide strategy that is guided and governed by United Way, The City of Calgary, Vibrant Communities Calgary (VCC), and Momentum to reduce poverty in Calgary. It aims to ensure that Calgary is a strong, supportive, and inclusive community, where everyone has sufficient income and assets to thrive, and all Indigenous people are equal participants in Calgary’s future.
E4A is guided by Calgarians’ own lived experiences, heard through the Indigenous Advisory Committee and Poverty Talks!, a lived experience committee.
“The voice of lived experience isn’t even just important, it’s critical,” says Sue Gwynn, chair of Poverty Talks! “In making policies and strategies for the end of poverty, if you don’t include people who are living in poverty, you’re never ever going to hit the nail on the head.”
Kassam reinforces the importance the experience viewpoint: “We have to share the voice of those people who are living in this context. We have to share their voice and their experience with the people who have the power to un-design it.”
Enough For All has 10 Levers of Change that must be addressed for poverty to be reduced in Calgary, each identified through consultations and research and aligning with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls To Action.
“There is a sad opportunity here, for a reset in empathy,” says Meaghon Reid, executive director of VCC. “In our community conversations, we meet a lot of people who are new to poverty. We’re probably most scared for them because they don’t know how to navigate the system in the way that someone who has lived in poverty for much longer can.”
Reid shares that from a systems’ change perspective, the solution to food insecurity isn’t more food; it’s more income.
“We really have to stop looking at it from the perspective of, ‘How we get more food to all these places?’ to ‘How do we give people more income so they can afford to eat?’”
Put simply, the solution is a shift. A shift in community perspectives of poverty; a shift in the approaches taken; and a shift in how to work together for sustainable future that includes everyone.
It’s a shift that will take time, but in the end, will create the place that individuals and families need to be in, not just to survive, but to thrive.