Introduction

Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health (WDGPH) is a member of the Guelph and Wellington Task Force to Eliminate Poverty (PTF). The PTF is committed to working collaboratively to take local action and advocate for system and policy change to address the root causes of poverty. In 2012, to support the work of the PTF, WDGPH and the County of Wellington formed the Circles Guelph Wellington initiative to increase understanding of poverty with a specific emphasis on identifying and reducing barriers to services and supports for individuals and families with low resources.  

Influencing the way individuals think about poverty was key to creating positive change in the community.  To support this, and as part of the initiative, WDGPH adopted a strategy made popular in the Sarnia region of Ontario for mobilizing community change, the Bridges Out of Poverty framework (Payne, DeVol & Smith, 2005). The objective of the framework is to look at poverty through an economic lens, while exploring other circumstances that contribute to poverty that an individual has no control over. The framework is built on the proven concept that everyone in the community has a role to play in poverty reduction.

In 2013 Bridges Out of Poverty was successfully implemented in the Wellington, Dufferin and Guelph area. Since then, WDGPH has provided training to more than 40 organizations from various community sectors with approximately 4500 individuals attending information sessions and 4582 participating in training workshops throughout Wellington, Dufferin and Guelph.

The request for workshops continues to grow. WDGPH wants to ensure that Bridges Out of Poverty continues to be an effective training for organizations by monitoring its progress, impact and to learn from these efforts.

Bridges Out of Poverty is promoted for its potential to mobilize change at the individual, organization and community level, and understanding how it accelerates change is significant to informing the future direction of the workshops.