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Come hear the Mayor who ended homelessness! Plus, exciting updates and events just for you.

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Published on Wednesday, 01 April 2015 08:17
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Come hear the Mayor who ended homelessness! Plus, exciting updates and events just for you. r1 ... r33 Hi everyone,

We're happy to announce some exciting news to make the start of this Spring season extra special: the second round of events for our Poverty Free BC Speaker Series is just around the corner! This time, we are very excited to host the "Mayor who ended homelessness."

Mayor Ted Clugston, of Medicine Hat, Alberta, will share with us his experience of becoming a strong advocate for a Housing First approach to tackle homelessness in his town. Mayor Clugston will be in Vancouver and Abbotsford from April 28-29, and you can also participate on a province-wide webinar, so there’s plenty of opportunities to hear his story and connect with the issue. Please have a look at the event details below.

And as we head into Spring, things continue to heat up. Below, you can find updates from our members and upcoming events:

There are always lots more events and interesting news that we’d love to share with you, so please head on over to like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter to stay in touch.

Trish and Gil

POVERTY FREE BC SPEAKER SERIES PRESENTS:

Once opposed to the Housing First model to help his city’s homeless population, Medicine Hat Mayor Ted Clugston is now a convert. We are pleased to invite you to come and hear how this Alberta city is on the verge of ending homelessness, as part of our Poverty Free BC Speaker Series.

April 28, 2015

Public Forum in Abbotsford, BC
University of the Fraser Valley, Theatre Room B101
(33844 King Road)
6:30-8:30 PM
Register here

April 29, 2015

Public Forum in Vancouver, BC
Vancouver General Hospital, Paetzold Lecture Theatre – Room 1891
(899 W 12th Avenue)
6:30-8:30 PM
Register here
(We also have the capacity to video-conference this event to other health authority locations around BC so, if you're interested in attending in your community, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..)

Province-wide Webinar
Online
9:00-10:30 AM
Register here

HIGHLIGHTS FROM COALITION MEMBERS:

Raise the Rates' Walk for Welfare

Today, March 31, 2015 marks the 8-year anniversary since the last increase to welfare and disability social assistance rates. In order to raise awareness and demand a much-needed increase to these inadequate rates, BC Poverty Reduction Coalition member Raise the Rates organized a "Walk to Raise Welfare," where members of the community, anti-poverty advocates, and supporters marched through Vancouver's Downtown streets chanting and talking to people about the need for better social assistance supports, demanding an immediate increase to these rates.

Trish joined the march and expressed the Coalition's support of this call:

"The current income assistance system in BC is fundamentally broken. Welfare is only $610 for a single person and $906 for a person with a recognized disability, and has not been raised since 2007. It wasn’t enough to live on then and it definitely isn’t enough to live on now. We support a significant raise in welfare and disability rates!"

Visit Raise the Rates' Facebook page for more information and check out the Open Letter to Minister of Social Development Michelle Stilwell that we, and many other groups, contributed to in the call for higher welfare rates.

The Alternative Federal Budget 2015: Delivering the Good, published by BC PRC member the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, demonstrates that the federal government’s continued obsession with austerity and balancing the budget comes at the cost of higher household debt, fewer services, and weakened job growth.

This course offered by Canada Without Poverty, will give you an opportunity to learn about the UN human rights system and how to apply a human rights framework to social justice work in Canada. Please have a look at the course registration page for course work and time commitment details.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Unite Against Austerity Keynote Panel

The BC Poverty Reduction Coalition is proud to co-sponsor this event, which will host an impressive panel of keynote presentations with the aim of building an understanding of austerity policies, and begin to generate a unity (that is attentive to specificity) across Indigenous, labour, feminist, migrant, environmentalist, student, anti-poverty and diverse community movements.

Speakers include Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs; Reilly Yeo, co-creator of Groundswell Grassroots Economic Alternatives and a specialist at OpenMedia; Arielle dela Cruz Yip of the Philippine Women Centre of BC; Paul Finch, treasurer of the BC Government and Service Employees Union; Adrienne Montani, Provincial Coordinator of First Call BC; and COMEDY by Sean Devlin of Shit Harper.

Head on over to the event's Facebook page for more information and to RSVP.


The BC Poverty Reduction Coalition acknowledges and honours the fact that
our communities lie on unceded Indigenous lands. Copyright © 2015 BC Poverty Reduction Coalition, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you signed a BC Poverty Reduction petition, subscribed to our mailing list at bcpovertyreduction.ca, or took part in a workshop with the Coalition.

Our mailing address is:
BC Poverty Reduction Coalition1400 - 207 West Hastings StreetVancouver, British Columbia V6B 1H7 Canada
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