Research Finder

Growing roots: A newcomer nutrition program designed using action research methods

Many newcomers to Canada struggle with food insecurity and the health impacts of dietary acculturation. “Growing Roots” is a newcomer nutrition program designed through a community development approach to help immigrants and refugees adapt positively t …

Futures Forward Enhancement Project: Qualitative Research of Youth Housing First Pilot Project

This report is a qualitative evaluation of the Futures Forward six month intensive Housing First pilot project.  As such, this report will provide a qualitative analysis of:  (1)  the pathways to youth homelessness in order to provide context of the so …

Housing Needs of Indigenous Women Leaving Intimate Partner Violence in Northern Communities

The problems of intimate partner violence and housing insecurity are independent issues and each worthy of discussion on their own. However, for women in northern communities these issues are often co-occurring. Violence is a major con­tributor to wome …

Re-establishing their Lives

This qualitative report looks at the experiences of women and children escaping violent relationships when they leave temporary solutions such as crisis centres in Northern Manitoba. Through our re­search, we explored both the geographic moves women ma …

Resettling Refugees’ Social Housing Stories

This paper is a companion piece to the report, Making Social Housing Friendly for Resettling Refugees. The intention with the present paper is to build on our assessment in the previous work. Ultimately, we are interested in understanding the relations …

Making Social Housing Friendly for Resettling Refugees

This work is an extension of a longer-term project that began in 2015, in which we partnered with Welcome Place, the housing arm of the Manitoba Interfaith Immigration Council (MIIC), which provides housing, legal and settlement supports for newly arri …

Fast Facts: The unique social housing needs of resettling refugees

War and persecution force refugees to leave behind all that they know to embark on new and challenging experiences of resettlement. In Winnipeg, they meet a web of service providers willing to assist them in this process. Some of these organizations as …

Fast Facts: The changing nature of social housing in Manitoba

What makes social housing ‘social’? In part, social housing is different from private-market housing because it intentionally provides low-cost housing for low-income households. But it is also a way of taking housing out of the market. It’s a way of k …

Meeting the Needs of Sexually Exploited Youth: Building on the Work of the Sexually Exploited Youth Coalition

The Sexually Exploited Youth Community Coalition (SEYCC) is a grassroots, cross-sector community group that is dedicated to finding solutions to the issue of sexual exploitation of youth in Winnipeg. For more than a decade, the group has advocated for …

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: Indigenous Peoples and Unions in Canada

It is true that historically unions have acted in the interests of non-Indigenous workers, failing to adequately represent the interests of Indigenous workers, and even actively excluding them from paid employment. Today’s unions are working to eradica …

They Can Live a Life Here: Current and Past Tenants Experiences with IRCOM’s Model of Housing and Wrap Around Supports

Finding affordable, secure, good quality housing is an essential and immediate part of the early settlement process for immigrants and refugees. Yet, obtaining appropriate housing can be daunting and often impossible in housing markets with a dearth of …

Communities and Research: A tool for change

The Manitoba Research Alliance has held its current Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Partnership Grant from 2012-2019. Now at the tail end of the project, this retrospective magazine shares the work the Manitoba Research Association has …

State of the Inner City 2018: Green Light Go: Improving transportation equity in Winnipeg

Transportation is essential for getting almost everything we need in our daily lives. Finding a job or going to work, getting groceries or other supplies, participating in social activities, accessing healthcare or social services all require the abili …

Keeping Winnipeg Affordable: Exploring the potential for inclusionary housing in a slow-growth city

In Winnipeg, there is a need for more affordable housing, as 21 percent of households (64,065 households) are living in unaffordable housing—according to CMHC’s definition of spending more than 30 percent of income on shelter. Additionally, there are a …

Living in the City: Documenting the Lived Experiences of the Island Lake Anishininew People

For both First Nations and non-First Nations peoples living in rural and remote areas, accessing diagnostic health services and treatment often requires traveling long distances, and in some cases, relocating to an urban centre for a few weeks or month …

Growing Roots: An Action Research Project to Build Newcomer Food Security in Winnipeg’s North End

Many newcomers to Canada struggle with food insecurity and the health impacts of dietary acculturation, including increased risk for chronic disease. Few evaluated programs or resources exist to support newcomers with their food challenges and there is …

Fast Facts: Social Enterprise Improves Food Security in Garden Hill First Nation

Food insecurity is a pressing problem for thousands of Indigenous people living in remote reserves in the North of Manitoba. The new CCPA Manitoba report Harnessing the Potential of Social Enterprise in Garden Hill First Nation explores in-depth the th …

**Video** Stories of Decolonization: Land Dispossession and Settlement

Stories of Decolonization is a multi-film interview-based documentary project that shares personal stories in order to explore accessible understandings of colonialism and its continued impact on those living on the lands now called Canada. It also exp …

Provincial Support for CED in Manitoba: The Experiences of CED Practitioners

Loxley et al. argued that Community Economic Development (CED) could function as an alternative economic framework which, instead of the strict focus on growth through profit maximization seen in liberal capitalism, might generate a balance between eco …

Fast Facts: Poverty and Education in a Low-Income Suburb

It is outrageous that large numbers of children starting school in Winnipeg year after year are so poorly prepared that they are, relative to other kids, behind the “start line” from the beginning. In a great many cases they never catch up. Their lives …

Indigenous Workers and Unions: The Case of Winnipeg’s CUPE 500

In this paper we examine the case of CUPE 500 and its relationship with Indigenous City of Winnipeg workers as a case study. Given the changing labour market in which precarious work is becoming more common and union density is shrinking, and consideri …

Harnessing the Potential of Social Enterprise in Garden Hill First Nation

This paper explores the economy, the health status, and particularly the issue of food sovereignty of Garden Hill First Nation (GHFN), a remote community located 610 kilometers northeast of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Similar to many northern communities, in G …

Fast Facts: Subsidized Housing With Supports Needs More Support

Stable and affordable housing is a central component in improving people’s quality of life. In light of a severe housing shortage facing low-income renters, it is clear that Manitoba has work to do to ensure that all citizens have access to a warm and …

“Here We’re At Home”: The WestEnd Commons Model of Subsidized Housing With Supports

In the context of a severe housing shortage fac­ing low-income renters in Winnipeg and across Canada, WestEnd Commons is an innovative pro­ject that includes a 26-unit social and affordable housing complex in a low-income neighbourhood in Winnipeg’s in …

Documentary – The Inclusive Economy: Stories of Community Economic Development in Winnipeg

All around us we see the results of the gaps that capitalism leaves. The Inclusive Economy gives a glimpse into the world of Community Economic Development (CED), and showcases the good work that’s going on right here in our province. Click the YouTube …

Fast Facts: Public housing plays an essential role in Manitoba’s housing system

Public housing plays an essential role in Manitoba’s housing system. It provides a specific form of housing: housing that has been removed from the market by focusing on its use as a home, rather than on its potential for financial gain, in order to ma …

Why Protecting Public Housing is Important

Public housing plays an essential role in Manitoba’s housing system. It provides a specific form of housing: decommodified housing that is affordable to low-income households. This means that it has been removed from the market by focusing on its use a …

The Collapse of P3 Giant Carillion and Its Implications

Carillion, a major global player in the promo­tion of Public-Private Partnerships (P3s) has gone into liquidation in the UK. The collapse of this massive company is a case study of all that is wrong with P3s as an approach to building and operating pub …

Community Economic Development in Manitoba: Theory, History, Policy, and Practice

Manitoba is a province of economic growth and economic disparity. It is a province with low unemployment rates, diverse development and incredible resource wealth (Brandon and McCracken 2016: 3). On the flip side Manitoba has high rates of economic and …

Fast Facts: Community Economic Development in Manitoba and the Inclusive Economy

Manitoba is a province of economic growth and economic disparity. It is a province with low unemployment rates, diverse development and incredible resource wealth. On the flip side, Manitoba has continuously had some of the highest child poverty rates …

State of the Inner City Report 2017: Between a Rock and a Hard Place – Challenges in Measuring Impact in Community-based Programming

Emerging out of conversation and collaboration with community-based partners we examine the issue most pressing to them. This year we heard that community-based organizations (CBOs) are  confused and uncertain about the government’s spending review. Ma …

Winnipeg’s Inner City: Infographic

The State of the Inner City 2017 report launch included an infographic breaking down information, stats and solutions. – Why Fight Poverty and Income Inequality? – Cycle of Poverty – Root Causes – Strengths of the Inner City – Solutions

Research for Communities: Justice Starts Here

In the report Justice Starts Here: A one-stop shop approach for achieving greater justice in Manitoba, authors Allison Fenske and Beverly Froese from the Public Interest Law Centre spoke with community groups who provide programming, opportunities, and …

Justice Starts Here: A one-stop shop approach for achieving greater justice in Manitoba

Understanding unique access to justice chal­lenges faced by specific groups highlights the importance of a more holistic or integrated and consumer-driven approach. This means moving away from a “one-way street” approach where the legal community views …

Income Security to End Poverty in Manitoba

Canada’s and Manitoba’s income assistance programs provide support to individuals and families when they have no other way to support themselves. There are 71,500 Manitobans receiving provincial EIA and 43,455 Manitobans receiving Federal Income Assist …

A Good Place to Live: The transformation of public housing in Lord Selkirk Park

The KPMG Report: No solution for the low-income housing problem

Consulting firm KPMG’s recommendations that Manitoba Housing units be sold and that the private sector play a greater role in providing housing for low-income people are profoundly mistaken. Far from being the solution to the problem of low-income hous …

Fast Facts: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

As the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) continues, a new study looks at the problems of reactive government policy on MMIWG in Manitoba. The complex impacts on family members of MMIWG are examined in Cost of Doing No …

Cost of Doing Nothing: Missing and Murdered Women and Girls

As the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) continues, a new study looks at the problems of reactive government policy on MMIWG in Manitoba. The complex impacts on family members of MMIWG are examined in Cost of Doing No …

Fast Facts: Prove Yourself! Barriers to accessing ID for low-income Manitobans

Government-issued identification (ID) is essential to gain access to a wide range of government entitlements, commercial services and financial systems. Lack of ID on the other hand, represents a critical barrier that prevents low-income Manitobans fro …

Access to Identification for Low-Income Manitobans

Government-issued identification (ID) is essential to gain access to a wide range of government entitlements, commercial services and financial systems. Lack of ID on the other hand, represents a critical barrier that prevents low-income Manitobans fro …

Minoayawin: Manitoba Flood Healing Voices

The Interlake Reserves Tribal Council (IRTC) partnered with Dr. Myrle Ballard from the University of Manitoba to facilitate an Elders Gathering to discuss, determine, and share strategies for First Nation Peoples to heal from the human-made flood in 20 …

Offering our gifts, partnering for change: Decolonizing experimentation in Winnipeg-based settler archives

Since the nineteen-fifties, Indigenous residents of Winnipeg, Manitoba have conceptualized and developed distinct strategies in response to the impacts of settler colonialism. Roughly seventy organizations have been established by and for Indigenous pe …

Social Impact Bonds and the Financing of Child Welfare

Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) are a relatively new way of financing social services in Canada. They differ from the normal way of financing social services in that they are funded initially by pri­vate sector businesses or foundations, which are reimburse …

City of Thompson: Youth Homelessness/Housing Instability Count 2016

The main reason for initiating a Youth Count was to begin to gather some base-line knowledge about youth homelessness in northern Manitoba and to pose questions such as: Who are the youth experiencing housing instability and homelessness? What are thei …

A Family Living Wage for Manitoba: 2016-2017 update

The 2016–17 Living Wage for Winnipeg is $14.54/ hour; for Brandon it is $14.55 and for Thompson it is $15.28. This is the amount needed for a family of four with two parents working full time to cover basic necessities, support healthy development of c …

Kiya Waneekah: (Don’t Forget)

In this paper, I discuss how I planned to implement an Insurgent Research methodology articulated by Métis scholar, Adam Gaudry in his article “Insurgent Research.” I organized my historic Métis community using an insurgent research model as methodolog …

Fast Facts: Women women speak out on homelessness

This winter, a 53 year-old woman died overnight in minus 32-degree temperatures, frozen to death on the streets of downtown Winnipeg. This tragic and preventable loss serves as a reminder of how Winnipeg is failing to support people who need it the mos …

Finding her home: A gender-based analysis of the homelessness crisis in Winnipeg

This gender-based analysis looks at the intersectionalities of gender, race, class, sexual identity and other factors. This is important since a “gender-blind” approach—of looking at men and women’s experiences together—just scratches the surface of wo …

Indigenous People, Wage Labour and Trade Unions: The historical experience in Canada

Have Indigenous people in Canada been active as wage labourers and union members? If so, what have been the circumstances? When and where and for what reasons have Indigenous people worked for wages and been union members and how have they fared in the …

“A Bit of Shame and Remorse May Go a Long Way”: Exploring the Social Impact of Discriminatory Practises in Thompson, Manitoba

The community of Thompson is a regional hub which provides services to a number of surrounding communities in northern Manitoba. Demographically Thompson presents an intersection of diverse cultures and is unique in that it has the highest population p …

What Does it Take to House a Syrian Refugee? Supporting refugee housing and resettlement beyond the Syrian refugee crisis

This report on the settlement of Syrian refugees in Winnipeg finds that public policy played an important role, particularly when it comes to an often-overlooked area of settlement: housing refugees. What Does it Take to House a Syrian Refugee? Support …

Fast Facts: State of the Inner City Report 2016: Reconciliation Lives Here

This year’s State of the Inner City Report tackles arguably the most important issue of our time: healing and reconciling Canada’s relationship with Indigenous peoples. A year and a half after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) 94 Calls to A …

State of the Inner City Report 2016: Reconciliation Lives Here

Reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada is arguably the most important issue Canada faces today. While the urgency may have emerged due to a heightened awareness of the legacies of residential schools via the work of the …

Fast Facts: Newcomer Families: The role of housing and wrap-around supports in Winnipeg

As housing advocates across the country recognize National Housing Day on November 22nd, we must continue to acknowledge the central role of housing in building inclusive communities and seek ways to ensure  that all low-income families have access to …

The IRCOM Model: Housing and wrap-around supports for newcomers in Winnipeg

The successful settlement and integration of im­migrants and refugees is a multifaceted, complex, and long-term process that requires the dedica­tion and involvement of both newcomers and the community in which they settle. Arriving to a new home is ov …

Anti-colonial Methodologies and Practices for Settler Colonial Studies

Indigenous scholars have called on settler people to engage in processes of decolonization. To investigate how white settler individuals living on Indigenous lands occupied by the Canadian state are responding to that call, it was necessary to articula …

Refugee Parental Involvement in Children’s Education in Winnipeg

A presentation by Fadi Ennab at the Strangers in New Homelands Conference in Winnipeg, Manitoba on October 13, 2016.  

Fast Facts: Lessons from Syrian refugee resettlement in Winnipeg

As the Syrian refugee crisis continues, so do Canada’s — and Manitoba’s — obligations toward refugee resettlement. With a reported 900 Syrians to arrive in Manitoba before the end of this year, what have we learned since last autumn?

It’s Time to Give Back to Manitoba’s North

A new Errol Black Chair report released today examines how events are unfolding in Churchill and The Pas. It puts these events in the context of the entire Northern region and urges government to consider the needs and aspirations of Manitoba’s Norther …

Social Housing with Supports: The case of WestEnd Commons

Since late 2014, twenty-six families in Winnipeg’s inner city have been living in a new, supportive social and affordable housing complex called WestEnd Commons. The innovative development was retrofitted in the 100-year-old St. Matthew’s Anglican Chur …

Fisher River Cree Nation: Innovative solutions toward improved post-secondary education experiences and outcomes

Fisher River Cree Nation (FRCN) is located two hundred kilometers north of the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. As is the case with many First Nations, its membership is young and growing and this leads to many opportunities and challenges. In an ag …

Financial Inclusion and Manitoba Indigenous People: Results from an urban and rural case study

This research project used a case study approach to examine access to mainstream Financial Institution (FI)1 services in one rural First Nation community and among Indigenous People in inner city Winnipeg. By case study we mean that through field resea …

Defining effective supports for students with emotional and behavioural disorders: The wraparound approach in the context of a community school

Children and youth with emotional and behavioural disorders [EBD] have complex needs that span an array of service providers (Stroul & Friedman, 1994; VanDenBerg, 2008) and given the paucity of supports for this population they may not receive the …

Fast Facts – The Next Step: Literacy Programming in Manitoba

Low levels of adult literacy in Manitoba are a barrier to full participation in our society. Easily accessible supports, located in low-income communities are needed to address this challenge, a new study finds.

The Next Step: Literacy Programming in Manitoba

Economists have estimated that low literacy levels cost the Canadian economy billions of dollars annually (Gulati 2013; McCracken and Murray 2010; Sharpe et al. 2009).  Those with low literacy skills suffer poorer health and add disporportionately to t …

How Government Support for Social Enterprise can Reduce Poverty and Green House Gases

A new Errol Black Chair paper explains how a combination of governmental policies and initiatives in Manitoba allows social enterprises to reduce Manitoba’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while training and employing Inner City workers. The provincial …

Work Life: Investing in Social Enterprise to Reduce Poverty and Green House Gases

A new Errol Black Chair paper explains how a combination of governmental policies and initiatives in Manitoba allows social enterprises to reduce Manitoba’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while training and employing Inner City workers. The provincial …

Engendering Alternative Justice: Criminalized Women, Alternative Justice and Neoliberalism

Feminist criminologists have a long history of arguing against the use of imprisonment and other formal justice system processes for criminalized women. Often feminist analyses of the formal criminal justice system end with a call for community alterna …

The Political Economy of Culturally Appropriate Foods in Winnipeg: A Case of Refugee Path Immigrants

Drawing on our Strengths: State of the Inner City Report 2015

It has recently been claimed in the media that nothing is working in the fight against poverty. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ State of the Inner City Report 2015: Drawing on Our Strengths, shows that this is not the case. Important pover …

Fast Facts – Gains are being made: State of the Inner City Report 2015

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ State of the Inner City Report 2015: Drawing on Our Strengths, shows that this is not the case. Important poverty-related indicators are improving. After decades of decline, public investment in community-le …

Fast Facts: National Housing Day – A Profile of WestEnd Commons

This past weekend marked Canada’s National Housing Day. In recent history, housing in Canada hasn’t been a hopeful topic. In 1993 federal funds for new social housing development were cut and responsibility for social housing was devolved to the provin …

Lived Experiences and Perspectives: Women, Mental Health and Housing in Winnipeg

Lived Experience and Perspectives: Women, Mental Health and Housing in Winnipeg is a qualitative research study seeking to understand the experiences of women with mental illness living in supportive housing environments, their concerns and hopes for i …

The Inclusion of Aboriginal Voices in Co-constructing “Home”: Aboriginal Homelessness in a Northern Semi-urban Community in Manitoba

Dominant approaches to homelessness often exclude the voices of those without a home, when solutions are designed. We argue that attempts to develop meaningful and long-term initiatives without including the voices of homeless people run the risk of fa …

Poor Housing: A Silent Crisis

Across Canada, there is a severe shortage of decent quality housing that is affordable to those with low incomes, and much of the housing that is available is inadequate, even appalling. The poor condition of housing for those below the poverty line ad …

Fast Facts: New Federal Government: Opportunity to End Crisis of Poor Housing

For Winnipeg residents with low incomes, the lack of affordable quality housing is a crisis. With a potential partner at the federal level, the possibility for progress exists, but housing activists must redouble their efforts to put end poor housing i …

Addressing Core Housing Need in Canada

Social housing is at risk in Canada. Just a few decades ago, Canada had an internationallyrecognized social housing portfolio, but today the supply of public, nonprofit and cooperative housing is in a downward spiral. As a result, over a million low-in …

The Impact of the Harper Government’s “Tough on Crime” Strategy: Hearing from Frontline Workers

Crime rates in Canada have been steadily dropping for over a decade, while prison populations have been increasing in recent years. Commentators have attributed this disconnection between falling crime rates and increasing incarceration numbers to the …

Deconstructing Neoliberal Rationality in an Increasingly Punitive Society: Canadian Public Support for ‘Tough on Crime’ Policies

Research has shown that criminal justice policy in Western democratic societies has become increasingly punitive (e.g. Wilson and Petersilia 2010), and that the public largely supports these policies, despite the fact that crime rates have been declini …

Implications of Hydroelectric Partnerships in Northern Manitoba: Do Partnership Agreements Provide Social License?

Over the past century, Manitoba has promoted the construction of hydroelectric dams as a means of producing energy. These projects are produced on Indigenous territory and bring these communities into direct conflict with the province and Manitoba Hydr …

Fast Facts: The Tough on Crime Strategy has not made our Community Safer

Frontline workers characterize the tough on crime strategy as “one size fits all” designed with the dangerous few in mind but applied to everyone. Workers believe the strategy sets the community up for danger by keeping people in prison longer in overc …

Work Life: Making the Case for a Labour Market Intermediary

There is a growing opportunity in Manitoba to bridge the economic and social divide between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. First of all, Manitoba employers are looking for skilled workers. Second of all, our large and young Aboriginal population …

Making the case for a Labour Market Intermediary: The Experience of BUILD

This report weaves together findings from data gathered through two other research reports published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) Manitoba. The purpose is to build upon evidence that demonstrates how and why a Labour Market Int …

It’s Home: Listening to Female Post-Secondary Students in Northern Manitoba, Canada

Our research study responds to questions: how do female post-secondary students define and measure their own successes? And what factors have contributed to their successes? Bonnycastle and Simpkins interviewed 27 female postsecondary students.

Aboriginal Women, Mining Negotiations, and Project Development: Analyzing the motivations and priorities shaping leadership and participation

The major objective of this thesis is to assess the role and contributions of Aboriginal women to mining negotiations and project development. Utilizing qualitative feminist research methodology, this research incorporated the perspectives of several p …

Learning from our Koogums (Grandmothers): Integrating Participatory Video as a Tool to Share Knowledge on Food from the Land

The project applied participatory video to archive traditional food recipes and stories in O-Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation in Northern Manitoba.

Innovative Practices of Inclusive Urban Development and Poverty Reduction – Universitas Forum Vol. 4, No. 2

Social Impact Bonds: An Update

In an earlier paper (Loxley, 2013) it was argued that Social Impact Bonds are a recent innovation in the financing of social services and are becoming more popular with governments, service agencies and private and charitable financing bodies. It is di …

Fast Facts: Community, Research and Social Change

The State of the Inner City Report is an annual research collaboration between the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Manitoba and community organizations based in the inner city of Winnipeg. This year marks its tenth year anniversary. Since the b …

State of the Inner City Report 2014: Community, Research and Social Change

The State of the Inner City Report is an annual research collaboration between the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Manitoba and community organizations based in the inner city of Winnipeg. This year marks its tenth year anniversary. Since the b …

2012 State of the Inner City Report: Fast Facts

This State of the Inner City Report adds to the mounting knowledge we now have about what works in the inner city and what doesn’t.  This year’s report also reminds us that we have a lot more to learn from each other, and more work to do as a community …

Fast Facts: Meeting the Housing Needs of Aboriginal People Moving to Winnipeg

Winnipeg can only succeed if the Aboriginal people of this city find success.  Ensuring that equal access to housing is available for Aboriginal people should be a priority for all levels of government and all citizens in Winnipeg.

Moving to the City: Housing and Aboriginal Migration to Winnipeg

Winnipeg can only succeed if the Aboriginal people of this city find success.  Ensuring that equal access to housing is available for Aboriginal people should be a priority for all levels of government and all citizens in Winnipeg.

A Terrific Loss: The Expiring Social Housing Operating Agreements in Manitoba

For decades, social housing has been an integral part of Canadian housing and social policy. Between the 1950s and 1990s, the federal government played a leading role in housing policy by entering into long-term operating agreements with social housing …

Fast Facts: Federal Withdrawal Results in Loss of Social Housing

Manitoba is losing subsidized rental housing units—a delayed result of the federal government’s withdrawal from funding social housing in the 1990s. As operating agreements between the federal government and housing providers expire, the subsidies expi …

About Canada: Poverty

For a country as wealthy as Canada, poverty is utterly unnecessary. In About Canada: Poverty, Jim Silver illustrates that poverty is about more than a shortage of money: it is complex and multifaceted and can profoundly damage the human spirit. At the …

Fast Facts: First Rung on the Ladder

Westgrove Literacy is a grassroots, community-based literacy program operated by Family Dynamics. This type of literacy programming serves the crucial function of being the first rung on the literacy and education ladder for many of the members of this …

First Rung on the Ladder: Community-Based Literacy Programming in Public Housing Complexes

A wealth of evidence—both global and local—confirms the value of literacy, and the importance of programs that promote literacy. !is is especially the case for low-income individuals and communities, for whom gains in literacy can be transformative. Th …

We’re All in this Together: Factors that Influence and Support Success for Female Post-Secondary Students in Northern Manitoba, Canada

At the University College of the North, women make up approximately 80% of the student population in the Faculty of Arts and in the Nursing program (UCN, 2012). In the University of Manitoba’s Northern Social Work Program, 87% of students are female. T …

Every House Counts: First Nations Housing in Manitoba

A lot has been written about the housing crisis in Canada’s First Nation communities. Adequate housing is not available in many communities, resulting in high rates of overcrowding and long waitlists. The current housing crisis is embedded within a ser …

Tribulations and Tears: Stories from the Youth of Norway House Cree Nation

The nuances within the youth of the Norway House Cree Nation along with the escalation in drugs, gangs and violence have led to climbing incarceration rates within the youth population. This has resulted in social devastation in the community over the …

Street Gangs in Winnipeg: Inner-city Youth Prevention Programs as Sites of Resistance?

Drawing on both post-colonial literature and critical gang studies research, this Master’s thesis situates the advent and growth of Indigenous street gangs in the context of settler colonialism, global economic restructuring, and the turn to a New Righ …

Fast Facts: World Urban Forum 7 – Policy Lessons from Colombia

For one week in early April, Sara Swartz (Universitas Programme of the KIP International School), Shauna MacKinnon (Manitoba Research Alliance [MRA] and University of Winnipeg [UW]) and Lynne Fernandez (MRA and CCPA MB) visited Medellin, Colombia to ta …

Rooming Houses to Rooming Homes: A Documentary Short

Rooming Houses to Rooming Homes

In Winnipeg’s inner city, and especially in West Broadway and Spence neighbourhoods, older homes converted to rooming houses are an important type of housing for many people living on low incomes. However, rooming houses are fast disappearing due to an …

2013 State of the Inner City: A Youth Lens on Poverty in Winnipeg

Sixteen youth from North and West End Winnipeg were given an important assignment: tell the stories of their neighbourhoods to the rest of Winnipeg for this year’s State of the Inner City Report. The CCPA’s Manitoba office worked with two youth-serving …

A Family Living Wage for Manitoba: 2013 Calculation Guide

The purpose of this guide is to assist others in calculating a living wage for their own communities, using the method developed by the CCPA-BC and First Call to calculate Vancouver and Victoria living wages in 2008. This particular guide will be most …

A Family Living Wage for Manitoba: 2013 Update

With approximately 38,600 Manitobans earning minimum wage ($10.45/hour) and fully 73,700 Manitobans making only 10% more, we need to ask if the minimum wage provides sufficient income to raise a family. Low-income families – many working more than one …

Preserving Aboriginal Institutional History in Winnipeg

Darrell Chippeway together with film maker Darryl Nepinak interview key Aboriginal leaders regarding the formation of many key Aboriginal organizations in Winnipeg.

It’s Getting Great: Government Investment in Gilbert Park and Lord Selkirk Park

Over the last few years, the Province of Manitoba has invested millions of dollars in renovating and providing resources in two public housing complexes in Winnipeg, Lord Selkirk Park and Gilbert Park. Anecdotal changes resulting from these investments …

They have stood by me: Fast Facts

As Manitoba has welcomed many newcomers over the last few years, it has developed services to help these individuals and families adapt. Refugee families and individuals struggle with multiple challenges such as language, literacy and trauma-related me …

They Have Stood By Me: Supporting Refugee Families in Winnipeg

The Family Centre of Winnipeg approached the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives–Manitoba (CCPA-mb) to do a qualitative study on their Family Supports for Refugees Program to better understand the needs and challenges of settled refugee families in …

Social Impact Bonds

Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) are a relatively new method of funding and delivering social services. Under this approach the private or social sector finances and delivers services under contract to the public sector, against a bond issued by the public s …

Creating Opportunities with Green Jobs: The story of BUILD and BEEP

Social enterprises have emerged as viable business models that create a blended return on investment as a result of the multiple economic, social, and environmental benefits they bring to local communities. They contribute to more inclusive and stronge …

Breaking Barriers / Building Bridges

On October 13th, 2012, CCPA’s Manitoba Office facilitated an intergenerational learning and youth exchange at Thunderbird House in Winnipeg. In attendance were four elders and 30 students from Community Education Development Association’s (CEDA) Pathwa …

2012 State of the Inner City Report: Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges

The 2012 State of the Inner City Report is titled Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges. We called it this because we believe it captures the essence of the two chapters included this year. The first chapter, titled Who’s Accountable to the Community?, s …

Losing Ground: How Canada’s Employment Insurance system undermines inner-city and Aboriginal workers

Marginalized workers, many of whom live in Winnipeg’s inner city and in Aboriginal communities throughout Manitoba, exist at the fringe of the labour market. Their marginalized status is entrenched by their inability to access programs such as Employme …

An Evaluation of Parental Perspectives on Children’s Education in Skownan First Nation

Exploring the impact of a culturally restorative post-secondary education program on Aboriginal adult learners: The Urban Circle Training Centre model

The educational attainment gap between Canada’s Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples both reflects and perpetuates a parallel disparity in socioeconomic conditions. Aboriginal peoples’ distrust of and disengagement from educational systems can be link …

Measuring Off-Reserve Poverty and Income Inequality in Canada

Though there has been substantial research on poverty and inequality in Canada, the issue of Aboriginal poverty and inequality has not yet been examined in a systematic manner. The issue has been discussed, in some cases, as a part of the overall pover …

Racialized Communities and Police Services Project 2005-2012

Bill C-10: The truth about consequences

Meeting the Needs of Youth: Perspectives from youth-serving agencies

Shared Futures: Big institutions and their inner city neighbours

Fast Facts: Immigrants and the Housing Crisis in Winnipeg

Making Employment Work: Connecting multi-barriered Manitobans to good jobs

The general thrust of this report is the idea that the Labour Market Intermediary (LMI) is conceived of as a central manager of networks of CBOs, government and employers. It requires dedicated personnel. It must be highly visible and well connected to …

Les immigrants face au logement à Winnipeg : Cas des nouveaux arrivants d’ Afrique francophone.

La présente étude se propose de comprendre la situation des immigrants francophones face à la question de logement à Winnipeg. Basée sur l’approche des déterminants sociaux de la santé (Morin et Baillergeau, 2008), elle a pour objet de voir dans quelle …

The Effectiveness of Neo-Liberal Labour Market Policy as a Response to the Poverty and Social Exclusion of Aboriginal Second-Chance Learners

This dissertation examines the political economy of labour market policy in Canada and its effectiveness in addressing the social and economic exclusion of Aboriginal people. For many Aboriginal people, the colonial experience has left a legacy of dest …

Fast Facts: Connecting the Dots – The OECD report on poverty and Winnipeg’s inner city

2011 State of the Inner City Report: Neoliberalism – What a Difference a Theory Makes

Transformative Writing Among Inner-city Adults: A case study evaluation of the Open Roads, Life Learning pilot program

What Happens When the Bed Bugs Do Bite? The Social Impacts of a Bed Bug Infestation on Winnipeg’s Inner-City Residents

Bed bugs (Cimex lectularius) are making an international comeback, to the point where a global “bed bug pandemic” is being predicted. The City of Winnipeg has not been exempted from this scourge, with one local extermination company reporting 2,800 bed …

Adult Refugees and Newcomers in the Inner-city of Winnipeg: Promising pathways for transformative learning

This paper focuses on EAL for adult newcomers and draws from the experiences and voices of 118 adult refugees and immigrant learners, settlement service providers, adult educators, and administrators who work either in school divisions or community age …

Pimicikamak Okimawin Onasowewin – A step towards decolonization?

2010 State of the Inner City Report – We’re In It For The Long Haul

If You Want to Change Violence in the ‘Hood, You Have to Change the ‘Hood: Violence and Street Gangs in Winnipeg’s Inner-city

There is growing concern about the level of violence in Winnipeg’s North End. The media regularly feature headline reports about gun violence, and street gang activity has become a focus of attention in the effort to “get tough on crime.” Against this …

2009 State of the Inner City Report – It Takes All Day to be Poor

From Revitalisation to Revaluation in the Spence Neighbourhood

Neighbourhood Renewal Corporations in Winnipeg’s Inner City: Practical activism in a complex environment

Winnipeg’s Best-Kept Secret: A community development vision for Sherbrook Pool

‘We got evicted…Did I leave that out?’: Stories of housing and mental health

‘More Strangers than Neighbours’: Aboriginal-African relations in Winnipeg’s inner city

A House Divided Cannot Stand: Joining forces to fight housing discrimination of refugees

2008 State of the Inner City Report: Putting our Housing in Order

It is a pleasure for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Manitoba to present the fourth annual State of the Inner City Report. As was the case with previous State of the Inner City Reports, this report is intended to both highlight current issu …

Alternative Access to Support, Resources, and Resistance: The role of newcomer communities

Focusing on inner-city Winnipeg – and using data from twelve semi-structured interviews conducted with Muslim newcomers who arrived in Winnipeg within the past five years – this paper will examine the role of the diaspora and community networks as a so …

Voices from the Margin: Challenges and opportunities facing newcomers in the inner city of Winnipeg

Is Participation Having an Impact?: Measuring progress in Winnipeg’s inner-city through the voices of community-based program participants

In the early stages of planning for the 2005 State of the Inner City Report, the State of the Inner City (SIC) steering committee expressed an interest in developing a means of measuring the difficult to measure outcomes of participation in community-b …

2007 State of the Inner City Report – Step by Step: Stories of change in Winnipeg’s inner city

The Effect of Information Technologies on Aboriginal Employment in the Airlines and Banking Sectors