Poverty Free Action Team – November 25th, 2015 Meeting Notes
In attendance: Trish, Mehak, Tracy, Doug, Rob, Kay, Omar, Sharnelle, Jessica

Poverty Reduction Coalition Update:

  • Trish toured the Kootenays with the Provincial “Road to a Poverty Free BC” workshop, stopping in Revelstoke, Cranbrook, Trail, and Nelson.
  • The Cranbrook stop was controversial as it was hosted by the Cranbrook Poverty Reduction Committee (one of the Provincial Government’s seven pilot local poverty strategies).
  • The Cranbrook Poverty Reduction Committee has been invited to the Coalition, and will phone into the Coalition meeting tomorrow.
  • The BC’s bipartisan Select StandingCommittee on Finance and Government Services unanimously recommended “a comprehensive and integrated poverty reduction strategy, including legislated timelines and targets for the reduction of poverty (including child poverty) and homeless ness in BC” for the THIRD time.
  • The Federal Liberals have promised a federal poverty reduction strategy for the first time.

Subcommittee Updates:

  • Poverty Mythbusters
  • After a subcommittee meeting earlier this month, Omar and Joys are working on creating an animation to compliment the audio from an interview recorded with Fraser, who has been struggling for over a year to get on disability.
  • In the meantime, some good things to think about are: researching facts about welfare and disability access that can either go in the video or accompany it, think of how best to phrase the myth that we're busting, thinking about what we want the "ask" to be (or if we want it to be purely educational with no ask)
  • The video will hopefully be beneficial to BCPIAC’s campaign, so it would be good to continually consult with them.
  • It will also be good to share the video with the Disability Alliance among others when it’s finished.
  • Outreach
  • Mehak collected a lot of signatures from high school students (and some parents) in Surrey. And we discussed what to do with that list. Ideas included:
  • Connecting them with the Surrey Poverty Reduction Coalition
  • Creating a specific mailing list for Surrey youth with specific asks
  • Hosting a meeting in Surrey with actions that they can take
  • BCFED
  • There were a lot of people
  • The exercise with the little balls received good feedback both in person and on Twitter
  • Social Media
  • Sharnelle never received the invite to administer the Facebook page
  • Omar and Tracy will maintain the Twitter account
  • #RethinkGiving advent calendar will dominate our December social media presence.

#RethinkGiving Advent Calendar

We selected the images, quotes, and links that will be shared as a part of the Advent Calendar and chose on which day they would be shared.

There are #RethinkGiving posters available for postering. Contact Trish if you would like copies.