A city-wide poverty strategy will be developed for Red Deer with a $50,000 municipal grant received by the Central Alberta Poverty Reduction Alliance.
Council approved a one-time funding request on Monday from the CAPRA, on the recommendation of the Social Planning department.
Councillors heard that this city is the third largest in the province, yet hasn’t undertaken a poverty strategy, such as has been done for Edmonton, Calgary and Medicine Hat.
It’s important to not make assumptions about people living in poverty, since there’s a wide variety of reasons they are in that position — and each person has a story to tell, said Monica Morrison, a member of CAPRA who works at the Golden Circle.
“We need to have a candid conversation… Let’s talk about what has brought them there… and what is it we can change?”
Once all the facts on the table, then existing services can be assessed, Morrison added. “We need to look at how we can tweak what we are doing.”
The funding request was strongly supported by members of council, who voted unanimously to give CAPRA the grant for the study.
It’s an important piece of the puzzle, said Director of Community Services Sarah Cockerill, who noted the city is pushing to eliminate homelessness and there’s a close relationship between a lack of housing and poverty.
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