How can we reduce poverty and extreme poverty in Quebec?

Our personal initiatives may seem insignificant when we think of the scale of the progress to be made. Fortunately, we are not alone, we can work together. The ATD Fourth World Movement acts by seeking to enable people who are living in poverty to find themselves with other people who have the same experience, but also with people who have a different background and who want to join in their fight against poverty.

This year, here in Quebec, members will be on the move through the Université populaire Quart Monde. In small groups of peers, each will reflect on a common theme. On three occasions, the groups will meet at the Université populaire. This year’s theme, which will be explored from different angles, is mobility.

We will also be running a street library in Hochelaga, Montreal. We want to nurture the children’s curiosity and facilitate the expression of their thoughts on Human Rights. Our team of volunteers brings books and activities every week, in the playground when the weather is nice, in the stairwells when it is cold. They go where the children are.

In lights of current events and the Special Commission on the Rights of Children and Youth Protection, the ATD Fourth World Movement is taking action to bring the voice of families living in poverty to the forefront. Several of them have children reported or placed in care by the Directorate of Youth Protection. We will go to them and collect their testimonies, then with some of them we will prepare a contribution in the form of a memoir. You can see our press release.

The World Day to Overcome Extreme Poverty is also fast approaching on October 17. The Fourth World House will be open all day long and will welcome all those who come to participate in the Commemoration at the end of the day.

At the international level, a research on the Hidden Dimensions of Poverty has been carried out by ATD Fourth World and its partners. Here in Canada, we will take the opportunity to share this research and to learn about these new poverty indicators.

We are a movement because we don’t do the same things in the same way. We adapt with time. All of us, each with our own strengths and time and spheres of influence, are moving together to ensure that our society receives and is shaped by the contributions of those living in poverty.

Daniel Marineau