The year 2020 marked the second year of phase two for Calgary’s Poverty Reduction Strategy. The COVID-19 pandemic was the biggest ‘story’ of 2020 and the impact of the pandemic on community efforts to reduce poverty cannot be understated. Limitations in support services due to closures and reduced capacity because of restrictions due to COVID-19 have likely increased the risk that people in need of support ‘fell though the cracks’. Building Back Better: Enough For All Evaluation Report 2020 is written within this context. 

The report shows progress and identifies gaps in the Goals, Levers of Change, Principles and the role of the Enough for All Champions and Vibrant Communities Calgary in advancing the Enough For All Strategy in the midst of a global pandemic.

In the video below, Dr. Katrina Milaney, E4A Evaluator with the University of Calgary, shares highlights from the evaluation. "One of the consistent learnings, year after year, is that poverty is not just about income, it's about inclusion and it's about dealing with trauma,' says Milaney. "This is really complex work that takes time, it takes persistence and patience."

2020 Enough for All Evaluation

There were some changes to the methodology for this year’s report. Vibrant Communities Calgary, United Way of Calgary and Area, the City of Calgary and Momentum worked together in 2020 on a study, Understanding the impact of COVID-19, to examine the impact of the pandemic on people living in poverty (lived experience study). Some of the information from that report is included in this year’s evaluation report. We also asked Champions and partners specific questions in our annual survey about the pandemic and its impact on organizations and the role that VCC has played as backbone to E4A. Themes related to COVID-19 are weaved throughout the report where relevant. We added a section to this year’s report called COVID-19 and Enough For All.

Low-income rates for 2020 will not be available until 2022. According to Statistics Canada, Alberta’s overall income poverty rate using the Market Basket Measure in 2018 was 9.4% and 8.2% in 2019. Child poverty rates were reported as 9.2% in 2018 and 7.2% in 2019. This may be attributed to enhancements to the Canada Child Benefit. However, the Alberta Child Tax Benefit and the Family Employment Tax Credit were combined in 2020 into the Alberta Child and Family Benefit. The result was an overall reduction in the income threshold, for example, once a household income reaches $41,000 they could receive $1,886 annually. Under the previous structure, a family household income of $41,000 meant the family could qualify for $3,187 in benefits. The change means that fewer families are eligible. The long-term impacts on low-income Calgarians are still to be determined; however, VCC and the Canadian Poverty Institute estimate that there could be an additional 77,000 people or more in poverty in our city in 2020. 

City-wide initiatives to build income and assets and support social inclusion continued in 2020 and reached thousands of Calgarians. For example, Financial Empowerment/Aspire, and Community Hubs reached more than 134,000 people. According to the Calgary Homeless Foundation, emergency shelters and community housing programs rapidly housed 1097 individuals and families living in emergency shelters. An additional 543 at risk individuals and families were diverted from homelessness into housing.

A particular highlight was the role that VCC played in being responsive to organizations’ needs. VCC “ramped up” their efforts including being an important partner in the Seven Brothers Circle initiative to ensure Indigenous families in need had access to basic need supplies. Survey results showed significant improvements in Champions beliefs that VCC is effectively coordinating change efforts and achieving the Goals of the E4A strategy.

VCC has increased their own and community-wide advocacy efforts and information sharing in 2020, including publishing 22 articles related to racism and poverty, literacy, food security and income support (among others). In addition to the lived experience research project, VCC also launched a Poverty Snapshot highlighting specific inequities due to COVID-19 including gender, race and precarious employment and more than 20 additional reports or briefs related to advancing the E4A strategy and building awareness of the specific levers of change. VCC also collaborated with the Canadian Poverty Institute on a research project to examine the depth of poverty in Calgary. Be Local events to engage businesses were also highlighted as being an important accomplishment for VCC and Momentum.

Thousands of Calgarians accessed United Way of Calgary and Area (UWCA) and City of Calgary programs, although numbers overall were down compared with 2019. More than 66,000 people accessed the Fair Entry program, 269,940 low-income transit passes were sold and 123,866 people were reached through the Community Hubs Initiative. UWCA funded 52 social inclusion programs that reached 53,531 people. UWCA also funded 31 programs meant to address poverty. These programs reached 28,939 people. 2020 Community Hubs data from UWCA show that 12,127 people participated in activities that helped improve their financial well-being, including 225 personal tax returns filed with the help of volunteers, resulting in over $490,000 in tax refunds. Aspire agencies helped with the filing of an additional 6,616 tax returns in addition to the 10,500 people who accessed financial empowerment supports through Aspire. City of Calgary Social Workers led 722 activities related to social inclusion, economic and community development in multiple Calgary communities with 7,539 participants.

In 2016, 56% of survey participants agreed or strongly agreed that VCC advances policies in support of the E4A strategy. This increased to 75% in 2019 and to 100% in 2020. Recommendations from the evaluation reports from 2015-2018 highlighted the need for VCC to take a leadership role in policy and advocacy work. These recommendations have been acted upon and the result is increased community-wide capacity to advance policy and system changes to reduce poverty. 

VCC submitted a response to the 2019 budget in early 2020 and partnered with End Poverty Edmonton on recommendations to the provincial government for the 2021 budget. VCC is also a key partner on the Social Policy Collaborative, a non-partisan platform for the human services sector to share information and collaboratively advocate for effective policy. Some of the members are advancing a recommendation to improve Alberta’s Income Support program. VCC actively supports the Basic Income and Living Wage campaigns.

Highlights include the City of Calgary’s Mental Health and Addiction Strategy and the Anti-Racism initiative to develop an Anti-Racism Action Plan that will include strategies and implementation plans for The City of Calgary’s organizational, community and public safety streams of work. Both the City of Calgary’s Mental Health and Addiction Strategy and Anti-Racism Plan are meant to build capacity, increase awareness, support existing initiatives and influence policy and practice. The Calgary Police Indigenous Roadmap was not launched in 2020 but their work expanded and is meant to facilitate changes across all four of the domains we address in this report (capacity, awareness, programmatic and systems change).

Changes to social sector capacity and prioritization of the physical and  economic implications of the pandemic have overshadowed the social, emotional and spiritual impacts, particularly on people facing structural barriers and inequities. If Calgary’s economy is slow to recover, there is risk that we will see even greater experiences of marginalization as many low wage jobs have been lost and efforts to balance government deficits lead to further cuts to social services and programming.

Dependency on technology to get or keep people connected to services was both a blessing and a burden. While many organizations swiftly moved to virtual platforms, many people were unable to access them because of the costs associated with technology. Some programs, like those related to financial empowerment, came close to or met target numbers while others saw sharp declines in participation.

A small number of Champions responded to our survey. This means there are gaps in what we know about the full impact of COVID-19 on poverty and how organizations adapted (or not) in 2020. Participants did highlight that the ‘messages’ and priority this year shifted away from raising awareness about poverty towards basic needs and crisis responses. There was an urgency to address structural racism and discrimination and COVID-19 impacted low-income and equity seeking groups disproportionately. If there is a silver lining, this increased awareness could lead to heightened and sustained actions.

Goal three “All Indigenous People are equal participants in Calgary’s future”, continues to be the ‘least’ reported on Goal and very few Champions gave examples of how they are specifically working to advance the Truth and Reconcilation Commissions’ (TRC) Calls to Action. The discovery of 215 children at a former Residential School on Tk’emlups te Secwépemc First Nation in Kamloops and at least 750 unmarked graves on the grounds of the former Marieval Residential School on the Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan are likely the beginning of many more discoveries. This is a critical time for building awareness and taking action against colonialism and systemic racism. In 2021 it will be a necessity for VCC, partners and Champions to prioritize healing and Reconciliation efforts.

Several programs faced temporary closures in 2020. Overall numbers of people accessing the low-income transit pass (for example) declined. Our lived experience study revealed that people struggled to access programs and many did not qualify for emergency financial supports even though they faced barriers to employment and a loss of income.

In 2020, some organizations accessed emergency financial supports to respond to the pandemic however, it is difficult to ascertain how these helped or hindered income poverty rates overall. It is also difficult to know how our governments will respond to the highest deficits in Alberta’s history.

The Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) was issued to 1,071,450 Albertans. This benefit was helpful for people who lost employment due to business closures and in some cases “people were better off than the low wages they made” (Interview participant). However, many low-income Calgarians were ineligible for the benefit. The numbers of people who accessed Employment Insurance (EI) in Alberta increased by 230% in 2020.

An issue of particular concern was school closures and online learning for children and youth who faced barriers to this type of learning. School dropout rates will need to be an area of focus and supports may need to be enhanced in schools and community agencies who work with ‘at risk’ families to reduce the long-term effects.

The E4A Evaluation Framework identified that challenges and successes would be reported as changes to capacity, awareness and will, programs and systems and policy, as aligned with a Goal, Principle or Lever of Change.

Results from both a process and impact evaluation led to the following suggestions for prioritizing efforts into 2021 and beyond.

Continuous Improvements: Recommendations and Priorities for the Future

Build VCC’s capacity as backbone by increasing engagement and coordination with Champions. While progress has been made, this has been a consistent recommendation since 2016. Strengthened engagement amongst the Champions will improve our collective efforts and our evaluation data.

Work with Champions and stakeholders to examine existing data that aligns with E4A Levers and goals. Seek opportunities to report on similar metrics to improve comparability and analyze gaps. Similar information could be then reported under the different Levers and might help increase participation in data collection for the Evaluation report.

Continue to partner with End Poverty Edmonton on collective advocacy and policy goals aligned with E4A. This creates a ‘provincial voice’ for poverty reduction.

Provide capacity building and knowledge exchange sessions to advance E4A Principles and seek solutions and new partnerships for the Principles that ranked lower in the survey in terms of action. Prioritize collective efforts to reduce systemic racism by building on the work and raising the profiles of the City of Calgary, Calgary Police and the Seven Brothers Circle.

Consider adding an annual research project with people with lived experience to determine patterns and trends over time. This would also ensure lived experience has a priority presence in the annual evaluation report.

Process Evaluation – Meaningfulness and Relevance of Goals, Principles and Levers of Change

Continue to build government relations strategies and prioritize policy and system change work. Build on the momentum that VCC and Champions have initiated and continue to ‘push’ for Basic Income, Living Wage, increases to the Alberta Child and Family Benefit and expansion of social and financial supports for those with precarious employment.

Launch a collective media campaign with Enough for All partners to provide clear and easy to access to information about supports and services for mental and physical health and wellbeing. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Calgarians mental health is staggering. Building awareness and challenging decision makers to respond with funding and initiatives to reduce barriers must be prioritized.

School dropout rates will need to be an area of focus and supports may need to be enhanced in schools and community agencies who work with ‘at risk’ families to reduce the long-term effects. VCC and Champions should consider formalized partnerships with Calgary’s school boards to seek opportunities and reduce barriers to community supports for children and youth.

Increase capacity/attention in Goal 3. Work with Champions to determine which TRC Calls to Action from the E4A report are not being addressed and seek new partnerships and shared value agreements to fill the gaps. There is currently no direct line of sight between the Calls to Action named in the strategy and the actual work in community. VCC should prioritize Reconciliation efforts.

Continue to monitor the long-term effects of changes to funding, policy and COVID-19 on the sector and Calgarians.

Impact Evaluation – Adherence to Goals, Principles and Levers of Change and Contribution to Results

Download the full report to learn more about the data, dive deeper into the topics, references, and more.

Adult Literacy and Foundational Learning 

2020 Evaluation Report highlights progress in poverty reduction

Building Back Better – Enough for All in action

Building Back Better – Enough for All in action

2020 Evaluation Report highlights progress in poverty reduction

Introduction

Successes and Strengths

Challenges

Continuous Improvements: Recommendations and Priorities for the Future

Process Evaluation – Meaningfulness and Relevance of Goals, Principles and Levers of Change

Impact Evaluation – Adherence to Goals, Principles and Levers of Change and Contribution to Results

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