• Brokering role is important to bridge relationships between different sectors. Also recognition that sometimes groups are reluctant to talk about issues with their funders
• Both government and community agencies take risks in working with each other; previous negative experiences exist for both
• There are many benefits to working together; for government, community agencies, and universities. Often unexpected benefits
• Identified barriers for government: they see partnerships as cumbersome and time consuming (especially at first); their concern that groups will have higher expectations for change; and their limited experience working with a variety of community partnerships.

Workshop View From the Front Door

Presented by Brenda Murphy, UCSN & Rick Hutchins, PolicyLink NB

Community Consultations on Issues of Child and Family Poverty In New Brunswick

The workshop was based on information gained in a series of community consultations held throughout New Brunswick. Both organizations have a focus on issues of Child and Family Poverty and were seeking public consultation at the community level on a number of key policy issues.

The presenters offered background as to the development and purpose of the community consultations and why the theme "A View from the Front Door" was chosen. They explained that they were trying to bring poverty to the forefront as a community issue. To give the issue more visibility and create more awareness in each community along with an understanding of what their view from the front door is, it was decided to use "front door" rather than "porch" so as not to exclude people who live in apartments, primarily in urban centres.

PolicyLink wanted to gather information from these communities about their perceptions, their understanding of poverty (or the realities of poverty in their community) and how have they taken action i.e. how have they (or have they) moved from empowerment to capacity. What are the conditions that have to be (or have been) present to affect change? UCSN 's desired outcomes for the consultations were to learn more about how their communities are being impacted by four key public policies, if there are other barriers, what is happening in their communities and how can their work be supported?

Four sessions were held leading up to this conference. The communities of St. Stephen, Sussex, Miramichi and Fredericton each hosted a session. For the purposes of this workshop, key responses from the consultations were presented to provide a context for group discussion. The general outcomes of the community consultations follow.

Outcomes

Although each of the community sessions was different there were a number of similarities drawn from the experience. The primary similarities were identified as:

• In general, community support for agencies and organizations helping to work with conditions of poverty in the community was high, being in the form of donations and volunteer support. However, a community understanding of the underlying conditions and causes of poverty was not strong.
• There was consensus in all of the sessions that there is a void in broad-based leadership at the community level. There are many organizations and groups working with the issue of poverty but no strong and united voice.
• There was a deep concern that problems in many areas were worsening and that there needed to be change in policy at a number of levels of government in order to reflect changing (worsening) conditions.