The purpose of the poverty reduction indicators project is to establish a baseline and measure progress on poverty reduction efforts using indicators in the Columbia Basin-Boundary region. Indicators are helpful for informing residents, organizations, and governments regarding key trends in poverty reduction, facilitating understanding of complex issues, evaluating the effectiveness of various poverty reduction measures, and motivating change. This project responds to a request made by the communities of Lower Columbia, Nelson, Cranbrook, and Revelstoke to support their collaborative poverty reduction indicator work and interest in more directly linking efforts to the State of the Basin Initiative. It is anticipated that the resulting poverty indicator suite will serve both State of the Basin monitoring and reporting and the poverty reduction planning and performance measurement needs of individual communities.

Phase 1: Indicator Selection Session

The Community Lead will assemble a small working group of community stakeholders that will come together to identify project goals and desired outcomes.  The working group will review the indicator library and select a core suite of indicators that: a) best position the community to understand poverty at the local level, and b) create a baseline from which to measure progress against identified poverty reduction goals (if applicable).  Phase 2 and 3 of the project will be discussed at this meeting, including an identification of required resource requirements.  The desired outcomes of the meeting are a draft Collaborative Research MOU, a prioritized list of indicators, and details required to create both a research and knowledge mobilization plan.

Phase 2: Data Collection and Analysis

The Community Lead will work with the research team at the RDI to collect and analyze prioritized indicator data.  A Co-Op student will be available to provide data collection support to the pilot community.  Training for community-based researchers is also available as needed.  RDI will produce a ‘State of the Poverty’ report, which will include baseline indicators to be used to measure performance against identified poverty reduction goals (if applicable).

Phase 3: Knowledge Mobilization

The report will be released and knowledge will be mobilized according to the knowledge mobilization plan that was scoped during Phase 1.  Knowledge mobilization activities could include, but are not limited to, a press release, a webinar to share key findings, a community workshop to tie together research, planning, and future action.

*Phase 1 pilot communities include:  Lower Columbia, Revelstoke, Cranbrook, Nelson, and Valemount

To learn more about poverty reduction please access the Knowledge Briefs below:

Knowledge Brief: Identifying Strategies and Initiatives in Rural Communities

Knowledge Brief: Using Indicators to Support Poverty Reduction

Knowledge Brief: Identifying Key Indicators for Poverty Reduction

To view RDI’s most recent Trends Analysis on Poverty visit the State of the Basin Initiative.

View State of Poverty Report:

A Statistical Snapshot on the State of Poverty in Revelstoke, BC

Surviving, Not Thriving: Poverty in the Lower Columbia Region