The president of the University of Regina was in North Battleford Monday looking to stamp out poverty.
Vianne Timmons was in the city April 18 as part of a community consultation co-hosted by the university's faculty of Social Work and by Poverty Free Saskatchewan, described as a network of individuals, organizations, governments and businesses all working to eliminate poverty.
The event was held at Battleford Tribal Council's Indian Health Services, who co-sponsored along with Meadow Lake Tribal Council, the Saskatchewan Association of SocialWorkers and the Faculty of Social Work. The day consisted of an afternoon session where local and provincial resource people engaged in a discussion on how to eradicate poverty, followed by a reception hosted by Timmons.
The purpose of the meeting in North Battleford was to come up with a plan to deal with poverty, bringing together "experts in the field who know intimately this field and who work in the field with families, who can be creative and brainstorm with us to look at strategies to eradicate poverty in Saskatchewan and North Battleford."
It was part of the outreach effort by the university that started three years ago. The university's role at this event is to facilitate the discussion and bring together poverty groups to look at the issue and find potential solutions, she said.
Timmons defines poverty broadly as "when people do not have the resources to meet the needs of everyday living."
She said there are a lot of ramifications from that, including reduced health and lower life-expectancy, as well as challenges in education. "It ends up there are a multitude of ramifications when people live in poverty," said Timmons.
She believes education is one of the important issues that need to be addressed, as well as community support. Timmons also acknowledged that First Nations communities were particularly impacted.
The issue of poverty has been particularly important in North Battleford, where city council has recently been struggling with the issue of where to locate a possible homeless shelter on a permanent basis in the city.
Timmons told reporters the poverty issue requires a common effort of municipalities, provincial and federal governments, as well as people in the community to sit around the table and deal with the issues. "That's what we're attempting to do here today," she said.
