The faces of poverty are often invisible. The struggles of a child, adult or family living in poverty can be silent and shrouded in stigma.
Behind the sharp rise in the cost of living, economic uncertainty and upheaval, are individuals — among them children — whose reality of living in poverty can deeply scar their lives from morning to night, day after day in ways both seen and unseen.
The United Way Greater Toronto recently launched its “Any Way We Can” campaign aimed at raising awareness about the severity of poverty in the region and to mobilize support to address it. A central focus of the campaign is ensuring families have access to services in a timely and accessible way.
Lianne Castelino of Where Parents Talk speaks to Anita Stellinga, Vice President of Corporate Communications and Public Policy at the United Way Greater Toronto about the current state, the campaign, its objectives and the faces of poverty.
Here is an excerpt of the interview:
Could you paint a picture of the current state as it relates to poverty and families. On a national scale, what do nonprofit services look like, and specifically in Toronto, what does poverty among families look like currently?
I think what we are seeing across the country, and specifically here in the GTA, focusing on Peel, Toronto and North York is that families are struggling, the challenges of daily living are incredible.
Costs are rising, rent is rising, inflation is rising, and poverty rates are rising. We’re seeing that one in four people across the GTA live in poverty. Now, we saw a bit of a dip in poverty rates during the pandemic, and now with recent data, that’s actually surpassed pre-pandemic levels. So in terms of families living in poverty here in the GTA, there are about 800,000 families that are being impacted.
Income that’s considered to be at the poverty line is about $57,000 for a family of four. And so with that, you can imagine, with rent costs and rising food costs, that after rent is paid, there really isn’t much for people, and people are making tough choices every single day, every hour, to survive.
We know that in terms of financial security, that a staggering number of people, two out of four, are only a paycheck away from financial insolvency. We know that food banks are experiencing incredible demand, that those numbers are rising month after month after month.
Our biggest focus is on ensuring that people have access to services where they need them, when they need them, because we really believe that the sooner we can get people supported, the sooner we can get services to people, the better it is going to be in the long run. It’s also equally important that people have access to services close to home, where they need them, where they live, because that is going to make lives much better.
This campaign of ours, any way we can, is really about the grit and the determination, the persistence, recognizing that these challenges are complex, recognizing that these challenges continue to persist in growing numbers in our community, and that we are collectively inviting, encouraging everyone in our community to be a part of that solution, to join us any way we can to ensure that people have that kind of support and access when they need them.
You’ve been in this space for over 30 years, and we live in unprecedented times. You’re seeing this sort of from the front lines in terms of what you do. What strikes you most when you look at some of those very sobering statistics that you shared, and others other statistics as well?
There are two things that strike me. On the one hand, the numbers that I’ve shared with you are so crippling, they’re so brutal, when you think about the impact, like behind those numbers is a person, is an individual, a family, that is reflected in those numbers and the struggles that they’re having, sometimes very invisible, not seen to people, because you don’t know what is happening behind closed doors and how people are surviving. Those numbers are dark and they’re grim.
But the other side of it is what I have seen during my almost 30-year journey in this space, in the sector — is also the hope.The incredible hope and persistence of individuals, of families, of community, of neighbours, of the community sector of agencies that are really there, that are often again invisible. It’s the thread of support that is there for people, and that is such a vital glue that supports people, that really helps to build a strong, safe, connected neighbourhood.
I see as part of our campaign the incredible generosity of people across the region that are supporting the work of organizations like United Way. We’re the second largest funder of community services after the government. Every single dollar is raised every year, and it’s raised because of the generosity of over 80,000 people across the GTA that believe in this vision of a better community and believe in providing support to people. And so when we see that kind of galvanization, that kind of mobilization, we know that things are tough, but we can persist, that there are solutions, and that we are bringing those solutions to people for a stronger GTA. I do believe at the at the heart of it, at the root of it, we all want a better place to live in, for ourselves, for our families, for our friends, for our neighbours.
There are stories behind every statistic. Could you illustrate for us some of the downstream impacts of a child within a family who is identified as being in poverty? If their situation is not addressed in the medium or short term, what does that typically mean for a child?
We know through research and evidence, the first six years of a child’s life are incredibly important. The social determinants of health, where we talk about food, housing, the basics, but also mental health, the opportunity to be connected in community, to participate, for nutrition, for physical activity, emotional health — is so, so critical to a child’s development.
When families are living in poverty, the poverty robs you. Poverty isn’t just a financial number. It isn’t just about income. It is about income, but that fact of being in low income or living in poverty robs us from so much more. It robs families and children from opportunities, it has an impact on their mental health, stress that they experience, the anxiety levels that families experience because they’re focusing on survival when there is no money for food. The biggest thought for a parent is, how can I put food on the table where we’ve just scraped through breakfast? What happens for lunch and now what happens for dinner and where’s tomorrow in all of this? And those are just the basics and so there’s that impact. There’s the ability for children to attend school, to focus, to participate, and get good grades. Those are all impacted by these things. And sometimes we don’t think about this, but poverty robs us of so much opportunity. It’s the choice between things that we take for granted.
Going to a birthday party — you can’t — because that birthday gift that you have to buy means a week’s worth of groceries for your family or transportation to get to your job. So you start to shrink. You start to take away. It starts to rob you of those connections, the friendships, the relationships, which we all know are so important for children, for us to thrive. And what it comes to then is this ability or inability to participate and feel like you belong.
When you’ve got unprecedented challenges, they really require courageous thinking, bold approaches. In what ways does this campaign do that and achieve that to tackle this growing reality?
We have a network of about 300 agencies across the GTA in Peel, Toronto and York, and we want to make sure that that funding, the funding for that network of agencies, continues, and that we can expand, because we know that the demands are going to be great. Agencies are already facing significant pressures to deliver services. There is so much growth happening, not only in terms of sort of development across neighbourhoods, but also population growth. You know, we’re projected to be over 9 million in the next decade in the GTA. That’s going to put significant pressure on agencies and the demands on services, especially if the complexities that we’re seeing with the numbers, the stats that I was sharing, is only going to increase.
We’re the second largest funder of community services after the government. We want to make sure that that funding is available, that we can expand that reach across the GTA. And to do that, we’re looking at what we call a community hub model — community hubs that are physically located in neighbourhoods.
We have 10 such hubs across Toronto right now that coordinate and bring together services so that they’re integrated in a neighbourhood in response to the needs that people have in that neighbourhood. Things like employment programs, food programs, mental health supports, children’s programs, supports for people like seniors, individuals with disabilities, parenting groups, Family Resource programs, putting all of those programs together in a place where people can access them easily, that they’re not having to go from place to place to place to figure out what they can get where, when and where.
These hubs are essential, and our commitment with this campaign is 10 more hubs over the next decade in Peel, Toronto and North York, working in partnership.
Related links
unitedwaygt.org
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