The international covenant of seventh avenue
I just gave money to a beggar. Actually, I didn’t give money to a beggar; I gave money to a person. She stopped me as I got off the train this morning at work, begging for a few dollars to … Continue...
View ArticleThe journey continues…
Dear Friends of the CPRI: “Hopeful” “Safe” “”Resilient” “Compassionate” “Inclusive” “Fair” – These are just a few of the words that people used to describe a Calgary without poverty. Yesterday, city...
View ArticleThe City Resilient: My Neighbour’s Strength is My Strength
Like everyone else, Friday June 21st found me completely unprepared. I couldn’t have imagined, the day before that I would be sitting at an evacuation centre desk watching the Red Cross wrap people in...
View ArticleAbundance: A Great Flood Tests Our Notion of “Enough for All”
The Calgary Poverty Reduction Initiative launched last year with the bold assertion that there is “enough for all.” This reflects our belief that the problem of poverty is not a scarcity of resources,...
View ArticleResilience: It’s What We Build Between Events
“Resilience” is the second foundational principle of the CPRI. We define resilience as “the ability to cope and thrive in the presence of obstacles, challenges and continual change.” What we...
View ArticleTrust: The Foundation of Resilience
When the firefighters came to “Bill’s” bedroom window in the middle of the night, and took him away in a boat, he could do nothing other than trust. When people began their trek from flooded...
View ArticleMaking Every Job a Good Job
The Important Role of Business Leadership in Poverty Reduction Poverty and Calgary are two words that don’t often go together. Ours is a prosperous city with a strong economy, the highest average...
View ArticlePoverty, Violence and the Promise of Healing
"...what we need is not to solve the problems of others, but to heal ourselves by building communities where distinctions between 'us' and 'them' cannot take root--where we are all 'us” and...
View ArticleHealing Poverty: reflections on identity, place and Reconciliation
When I was preparing to move to Calgary some twenty years ago, a friend remarked, “Calgary, eh? That’ll be a great city once they get their bags unpacked.” Now, twenty years on, that statement still...
View ArticleHealing Poverty: It All Begins With Trust
I have been writing recently about the idea that poverty is not a problem to be fixed but rather a wound to be healed. For poverty, and all of its associated pain, is itself a trauma that affects us...
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