Colour of Poverty Campaign is trying to ensure the Ontario government's poverty reduction strategy begins to address the reality that people of colour are disproportionately living in poverty in comparison to other groups and face specific barriers because of issues like discrimination and racism. Read about their demands below and the attached Shared Framework for Action:

Dear Colour of Poverty Network Members and Supporters

May 2008

As you know, the Provincial Cabinet Committee on Poverty Reduction has begun its consultation process. The approach adopted by the Committee would appear to be to avoid addressing the particularly harsh experiences of historically and dispropor-tionately disadvantaged groups & communities - racialized persons, aboriginal peoples, persons with disabilities, newcomers or lone-parent families - and to conduct closed door invitation only sessions - which will exclude most members of the concerned public.

It is important for members of racialized communities as well as other marginalized groups to find a way to be most meaningfully engaged in this critical discussion - and to try to make sure that the realities and issues impacting our communities are on the table.

In order to help mobilize and support members of our communities to best participate in this process, *Colour of Poverty* has created a *Shared Framework for Action.*

The *Shared Framework for Action* is a short priority list of the policies and measures as put forward by members of the various racialized groups and individuals who were able to take part in our over 30 local workshops and neighbourhood conversations - held in communities across the province over the past 6 months - which culminated in the *Colour of Poverty Provincial Forum* held on April 28-29, 2008.

This *Shared Framework for Action* focuses on the specific measures that participants felt would best address & redress the realities & the particular challenges characteristic of racialized poverty in Ontario. We are calling upon all community groups and individuals concerned about these issues to engage in one or more of the following *ACTIONS* -

1. Endorse the **Colour of Poverty Shared Framework for Action
2. Write to your local Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) introducing them to, and getting their support for the Shared Framework for Action
3. Ask for a meeting with your MPP – as well as your local media contacts - to more fully introduce, share and discuss the Shared Framework for Action
4. Organize meetings within your local groups and communities to discuss the local and provincial application of the Shared Framework for Action
5. Attend the consultation meetings of the Cabinet Committee and help us to consistently and coherently put forward the Shared Framework for Action

HURRY! The Cabinet consultation process ends soon. We need to act now & act together !!

*For more about the Cabinet consultations - www.Ontario.ca/GrowingStronger

Various community groups are keeping a close eye on the ongoing consultation of the Ontario Cabinet Committee on Poverty Reduction. For a variety of informed viewpoints on Ontario's poverty reduction strategy and consultation, read the following:

• OCAP: Poverty reduction committee 'a distraction', an interview with an OCAP member
• Poverty Watch Ontario is a website that maintains a log of community events on poverty reduction and attempts to monitor cross-Ontario activity on the poverty reduction.
• OCAP - The Ontario Liberals and 'Poverty Reduction': Are they Trying or Lying?
• Toronto Star editorial - "Why we must talk about race when we talk about poverty"
• 25-in-5: Network for Poverty Reduction - Recent news, media and resources on poverty reduction.

The City of Toronto is becoming increasingly divided by income, ethno-cultural characteristics, and socio-economic status, says a new report, The Three Cities within Toronto (in PDF), issued by the Centre for Urban and Community Studies (CUCS) at the University of Toronto. No longer a “city of neighbourhoods,” the study calls modern-day Toronto a “city of disparities.” In fact, Toronto is now so polarized it could be described as three geographically distinct cities made up of 20 percent affluent neighbourhoods, 36 percent poor neighbourhoods, and 43 percent middle-income earner neighbourhoods and that 43 percent is in decline.

The Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women has a new fact sheet, Women’s experiences of social programs for people with low incomes (in PDF). This fact sheet weaves together the voices of women with critical analysis and detailed evidence on how the devolution of social programs has impacted on diverse low-income women’s lives. It provides important evidence as to why and how listening to women’s voices is critical to knowing the real issues in policy making and programming. It combines existing quantitative research with new qualitative research based on the perspectives of policy makers, social service providers, low-income First Nations, immigrant, refugee women and women with disabilities from three Canadian cities.

L’impact des programmes sociaux : des femmes à faible revenu racontent (format pdf)
Ce feuillet d’information mêle divers témoignages de femmes à faible revenu avec une analyse critique et des informations détaillées sur l’impact de la dévolution des programmes sociaux. Il présente des informations concluantes qui soulignent l’importance d’écouter les femmes pour connaître les vrais problèmes auxquels doivent s’attaquer les politiques et les programmes. Il s’inspire du rapport intitulé Integrating the voices of low-income women into policy discussions on Canada Social Transfer (CST), une recherche qualitative menée en 2007 dans trois villes canadiennes avec des décideurs, des organismes de services sociaux et des femmes à faible revenu autochtones, immigrantes, réfugiées et handicapées. Des données quantitatives tirées de recherches antérieures viennent compléter le tableau.

The Center for Pan-African Development in South Florida, have created the Take Back the Land project and have set up the Umajo Village shantytown in protest of the lack of affordable housing. You can watch two videos of the shantytown and the struggle for affordable housing in the US on YouTube - Umoja Village (Video) and Umoja Village 11.20.06 (Video).

An article in the Dominion,"Race and Waste in Nova Scotia" outlines the struggle of a small black community in rural Nova Scotia to fight the opening of a second landfill in their area. The residents have argued that they have recieved no economic benefit from the first landfill in their community and a second landfill will just add to the poverty and health problems of the residents. The Save Lincolnville Campaign accuses the municipality of environmental racism, defined as: "The intentional situating of hazardous waste sites, landfills, incinerators and polluting industries in and around communities inhabited mainly by people of black descent and First Nations people, as well as the working poor."