A report from a poverty conference hosted by the Health Promotion Clearinghouse identifies 96 individual action plans for tackling poverty in Nova Scotia. The conference was attended by representatives from governmental, private and non-profit sectors, as well as people living in poverty.
The post-conference report calls for the implementation of recommendations found in the Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology report on poverty. As well, attendees recommend innovative solutions to poverty in the areas of education, employment, skills training, childcare and transportation. A series of next steps to tackle barriers to progress are also identified.
Local success stories, such as an innovative industry/government partnership to increase employment in sectors experiencing skilled shortages, are also described. Panel discussions yielded lessons from other jurisdictions and identified opportunities for collaboration, for instance, on issues such as affordable housing, food security and working conditions. An entire day of the conference was devoted to identifying next steps taken from conference discussions. Increasing public awareness and political will to initiate policy change was explored and a commitment to check back on progress was made.
See “Building Wellbeing and Prosperity Together: Taking Action on Poverty,” Health Promotion Clearinghouse, March 2011, available at www.hpclearinghouse.ca.
See also “In From the Margins: A Call to Action on Poverty, Housing and Homelessness,” Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology, Subcommittee on Cities, December 2009, available at www.parl.gc.ca.