06/01/2025
The effectiveness and sustainability of anti-poverty coalitions depend on the ongoing "backbone" support of an organization dedicated to coordinating, guiding and resourcing collective advocacy and action. In the comments, please find a notice about the dissolution of Poverty to Prosperity (P2P) Huron Perth effective May 30, 2025. The decision was ostensibly made after a meeting that took place on April 24, 2025 attended by some local not-for profit agencies that have participated in P2P over the past 10 years. However, the demise of P2P had already been determined in the fall of 2024 when Huron Perth Public Health decided to withdraw its commitment to providing backbone support to P2P because poverty was "no longer a health unit priority", despite income being the most significant determinant of health, and despite increasing poverty, especially in our rural communities and among equity-denied groups. Whose responsibility is it to drive efforts to ameliorate poverty at the local level, and ultimately advocate and act to prevent it, if not public health? (It's a serious and critical question as we all experience the health impacts of economic uncertainty). If you agree, feel free to contact your municipal and/or provincial representatives - both levels of government fund public health in Ontario.
