Why We Exist

Did you know?

Nearly 140,000 people in Calgary live in poverty₁.

• Lone parent families have, by far, the lowest incomes of all family types.  80% of lone parent families are headed by women₂.
• In Calgary, 21% of female-headed, lone-parent families in Calgary are low-income₃.
• 16% of Calgary children - over 38,000 - live in low-income households₄.

As well, poverty affects the whole community through increase social, health and education costs as well as fewer people supporting the local economy.

 

The Focus on Women and their Families

"Virtually all groups that study poverty agree that the most effective way to reduce it is to improve the social, economic and political situation of women and, by extension, children. Women’s levels of health, education, and security reflect those of their  families. So, when a mother suffers the effects of poverty, future generations of her family do as well, creating a cycle of poverty from which it is very difficult to escape.”₅

 

1,2,3,4 Statistics Canada, Census of Population, 2006

 

5 Women and Children in Poverty – Global

Conventions on the Rights of Women and

Children, Progress Toward International

Goals document, UNICEF, 1999