Huron Expositor, 2016-05-04, Page 9Wednesday, May 4, 2016 • Huron Expositor 9
P2P continues to make progress
Valerie Gillies
Special to the Expositor
The group Poverty to Pros-
perity (P2P) met at the
Huron Public Health Unit in
Clinton on April 12 for their
regular meeting. The agenda
began with presenters giving
reports on the progress in
their working groups fol-
lowed by a presentation
from a guest speaker.
The Poverty Report Card is
undergoing another rede-
sign by the Social Research
and Planning Council
(SRPC). Erica Clark indi-
cated that the current ver-
sion is very useful in speak-
ing to those working in the
field, but was not as user
friendly as an educational or
presenting tool to the public,
as had been desired. The
document will be redesigned
to reduce the amount of
information included and to
make the indicators more
relevant as to what the data
means to individuals. The
indicators will focus on
effects to housing, food and
income and will have a story
attached to personalize the
impacts in order to make it a
better educational tool. The
estimated launch date of the
new version is one to two
months.
P2P member Miranda
Burgess of the Grand Bend
Community and Area Health
Centre (GBCAHC) gave a
presentation on the results
of their "Be Well" studies. As
the GBCAHC is on the
boundary between Lambton
Shores and the Huron
County municipalities of
South Huron and Bluewater,
the survey and interviews to
compile the data were gath-
ered from each of those
areas. The data was further
divided into separate Lamb -
ton and Huron samples to
compile the results. In all
cases across the indicators
Huron fared worse than
Lambton in perceived well-
being. The main differences
between the samples were
that income in Lambton was
higher on average than in
Huron and the Lambton
participants had a higher
average age range than those
in Huron. Both groups con-
tained more female
respondents than male. Bur-
gess presented several statis-
tics for the Huron sample to
the P2P group and provided
handouts. She invited P2P
members to take part in a
more detailed discussion of
"Be Well" which will be pre-
sented at the Community
Health and Wellbeing Sum-
mit in Grand Bend on April
26.
The Ontario Society of
Nutrition Professionals in
Public Health (OSNPPH)
asked P2P to endorse their
mission statement on Food
Insecurity. In the presenta-
tion it was emphasized that
food insecurity is a human
rights issue. The donations
and food charities
approaches are not enough
to address the need. P2P did
agree to endorse the state-
ment that was printed in one
of the three handouts pro-
vided. A letter will be sent
from P2P.
The Huron Food Action
Network (HFAN) asked P2P
to support their Food
Charter. People, including
individual members of the
public, can endorse the Food
Charter at huronfoodaction.
ca/sign-the-food-charter.
Cindy Moyer is an advo-
cate of Basic Income Guar-
antee (BIG). She explained
that BIG is a guaranteed
demi-grant or negative tax
income that is to be given to
all who qualify as an adult to
cover basic needs in accord-
ance with their situation.
Moyer referenced a pilot
project that had taken place
in Dauphin, Manitoba
between 1974 and 1978. The
positive outcomes from that
pilot negate all of the objec-
tions currently being
brought forward when dis-
cussions on the subject of
BIG are held. Most people
are unaware of the findings
from the Dauphin pilot as an
election at that time had
halted the project before the
data could be analyzed. Dec-
ades later, Evelyn Forget,
professor of community
health science at the Univer-
sity of Manitoba, took three
years to go through the data
and make comparisons of
the results to a comparative
neighbouring Saskatchewan
town in the same time frame.
Moyer is now advocating to
governments, agencies and
groups in Huron County to
apply for the government -
announced pilot that will be
taking place. She estimates
that it will take approxi-
mately a year to put together
the application as there is
very stiff competition from
other areas wishing to have
the project in their location.
Moyer is getting the word
out now to spark the process
and through prior discus-
sions was directed to P2P as
a group that may be of assis-
tance to BIG. During the dis-
cussion, it was agreed to
endorse BIG, but to keep in
mind that it is only one pos-
sible solution to poverty,
other actions will need to be
taken as well.
Roundtable updates from
the working groups and
committee members
rounded out the meeting.
Information Coordination
group reported that every-
one needs to know what ser-
vices are available. Although
211 has been implemented,
there are gaps in information
and it is recommended to
make sure that staff receive
the required training and
that the information on hand
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is up to date. It was empha-
sized that the information
must flow both ways. The
goal is to get the information
to the community, but the
information must also be
shared between the service
providers.
Community Hubs group
reported that the public
libraries are already seen as
information hubs in their
respective communities.
Therefore it would make
sense to leverage this to get
the information out to the
public. The report from this
committee will be taken to
the Library Board soon.
The Education and Aware-
ness group reported that
originally P2P had received
funding from the Ontario
Trillium Foundation. They
have now been notified that
they will receive a three-year
grant from Perth -Huron
United Way towards the
Huron Park Project plus two
additional projects. The
Adopt -a -Councillor initiative
has been launched to
encourage municipalities
and other political leaders to
become involved in P2P.
Huron Warden Paul Gowing
attended under an invitation
through this initiative.
The Advisory Group for
the Huron Park Project will
be meeting with the consult-
ants in late April. These are
the same consultants who
helped in the formation of
P2P. They are keen to get into
the community to start
working as soon as possible.
The next Poverty to Pros-
perity meeting will be held
in August.
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