Highlights from Ancaster and Oakville

Last Friday and Saturday I was in Ancaster and Oakville for a couple of events. On Friday morning, I attended a Stand Up event on poverty organized by Redeemer University College students. In speeches, prayer and song, the Redeemer students shared inspiration and hope for action on the Millennium Development Goals and on poverty.

Following the event, I gave a presentation on “Staying Engaged After the Election: Holding Government Accountable.” I shared stories of successful advocacy, talked about the importance of public policy engagement for Christians, and then offered advice on the five aspects of advocacy. Here I am, promoting our new advocacy toolkit:

This was followed by an excellent discussion with the students on poverty reduction strategies and what the opportunities and needs are for advocacy for a poverty reduction strategy in Ontario and Canada. This group of students I spoke to was particularly engaged – one class even put together a brochure on poverty issues for voter information during the recent election. It was inspiring to see concern and action go hand-in-hand in the leaders of tomorrow.

Friday afternoon, I visited the Grade 6 classes of John Knox Christian School in Oakville. They’ve been learning about non-governmental organizations, so I shared with them the work of CPJ and the work that I do in particular. They had lots of good questions for me afterwards. I used a parable that involved babies floating down a river to describe the difference between justice and charity, and to my surprise, I had a lot of questions about the current condition of those babies! But they were very well informed about the work of NGOs, and so they were able to ask me how that related to my job.

Also to my surprise, no one asked me whether I am older or younger than their teacher, my sister Bethany (for the record, I'm older!). Here are Miss Pasma and I:

Thanks to the Grade 6 classes for a very fun visit!

On Saturday, I was at the Day of Encouragement, hosted by Diaconal Ministries Canada in Ancaster. In the morning, I led a workshop on Envisioning Canada Without Poverty. This workshop explored poverty in Canada from the perspective of human dignity, symptoms and causes of poverty, and poverty reduction strategies. We ended with a conversation about how to bring this information to our churches to educate and inspire them to get involved in the fight against poverty.

Some of the suggestions included:

• small group discussions to explore the issue,
• holding a worship service on the theme of poverty and justice,
• introducing elements focused on poverty and justice into our regular worship,
• finding ways to expand on projects that are already happening in churches, particularly with the youth, in order to keep learning and growing and offering opportunities for service,
• getting involved in a project like Operation Sharing,
• walking alongside and befriending people who are experiencing poverty,
• hosting an MP forum,
• having a letter writing event at church,
• having an evening of stories about poverty or a local expert come in to speak.

We discussed the ways in which churches are already engaging in some of these activities, and how God calls us to extend these activities to our neighbours experiencing poverty. Given the very likely possibility of a recession which could put poverty reduction on the backburner of priorities, some participants felt that the church has an important role to play right now ensuring that poverty stays on the agenda and is addressed by governments.

It was a very encouraging conversation. I know first-hand some of the difficulties in getting a congregation to talk about issues of poverty, so it was good to hear of people’s ideas, activities and passion for seeing these conversations and actions take place within their congregations. If anyone has more ideas for involving churches, please let us know, either in the comments below or by email.

Here are my participants, hard at work on creating lists of poverty symptoms and causes:

I also spent some time Saturday at our display table. I met some CPJ members and shared information with people interested in learning more about CPJ. It seems as though our recent election has created a real concern about justice issues and ensuring that our government pays attention to them. I think moving forward there will be a very important role for CPJ in helping people to address these issues with their government. I’m excited to be a part of that.

This was a great trip. I always feel energized after meeting with members and supporters, being able to share CPJ's work and experience your enthusiasm.  And thanks to my husband Matt and Bethany for taking all of the photos.