Poverty in British Columbia:
A Resource Booklet for Schools

BY JEAN SWANSON

En Colombie-Britannique, une coalition de 19 organismes baptisée ELP (End Legislated Poverty) a publié un guide sur la pauvreté, en réponse à un programme d'études préparé par le gouvernement de la province sur Expo '86. Jean Swanson, coordonnatrice de ELP, nous donne un aperçu général du projet et nous décrit ce guide de ressources.

Le guide, intitulé Poverty in British Columbia, a été écrit par Sandy Cameron, une enseignante au chômage. Il définit ce qu'est la pauvreté, montre qui est pauvre au Canada, étudie le coût social du chômage et de la pauvreté, et envisage divers moyens d'éliminer le problème. Conçu pour être utilisé dans les écoles secondaires, il propose des activités pédagogiques à faire en classe. Parmi les exercices proposés, on trouve la préparation d'un budget pour une famille de trois personnes ayant un revenu minimum et l'exploration de scènes de la vie quotidienne ayant trait au chômage et à la pauvreté. Le guide comprend une section "ressources", avec les titres de documents de référence et les noms et adresses de centres de santé, d'organisations communautaires et de centres d'action contre le chômage de la Fédération du travail de la Colombie-Britannique.

On peut se procurer des exemplaires de Poverty in British Columbia, par Sandy Cameron, (en anglais uniquement) en envoyant 2,50 $ à Lesson Aids Services, B.C. Teachers' Federation, 2235 Burrard Street, Vancouver, B.C. V6J 3H9, ou en appelant le (604) 731-8131.

The idea for a resource booklet on poverty started when we at End Legislated Poverty (ELP), a coalition of B.C. groups, heard that the provincial government was preparing a school curriculum on Expo '86. Our feelings about Expo weren't exactly warm. The province was spending about $1.5 billion on Expo while women's centres were starved for funds, a program to reimburse disabled people for the expenses of their volunteer work was gutted, and welfare recipients had gone for over four years without an increase in their social assistance payments.

About 230,000 British Columbians were living on welfare at half the poverty line. Eighty-five thousand of them were children, and most of them children of single mothers -- people without enough money for food, bus fare, or rent -- people who could survive, maybe, but not live decently.

So yes, the idea of resource booklet did spring into our heads. If the government could have a curriculum on Expo, we'd have a curriculum unit on poverty in B.C. -- a little something to balance the government's message with the reality of life for one-fifth of British Columbians living below the poverty line.

Our 19 member coalition, End Legislated Poverty, was made up of just the right people for such an endeavor. The coalition is made up of such groups as the Downtown Eastside Residents Association, the Public Housing Tenants' Association, and the Single Mothers' Action Committee. All provided first hand information about poverty. And several unemployed action centers, including the Unemployed Teachers' Action Centre, were members.

An unemployed teacher, Sandy Cameron, volunteered to do the work on the curriculum unit. Another ELP member, the B.C. Teachers Federation, provided staff help, promised to check over our finished product from the teaching angle, offered to print the final product as one of their official "lesson aids", and provided us with teacher contacts throughout the province so we could actually go out and "sell" the booklet. Two of our other members, the B.C. Federation of Labour's Vancouver and New Westminster Unemployed Action Centers, provided access to the entire unemployed action centre network and to the labour movement, which was quite enthusiastic about the unit, are helping to get it used throughout the province. And, finally, another of our members, First United Church, provided a small grant from their Van Dusen fund so we could hire a person to actually talk to teachers, churches, and group about the booklet and how to use it.

And, oh yes, we did write to the Ministry of Education and inform them that we would be writing this booklet, and ask to meet with them about it. But when we were almost to the point of having our first meeting with them, they stopped answering our letters.


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