A local organization has big goals to help reduce poverty in Chatham-Kent.
CK Prosperity Roundtable is in the middle of creating a five-year action plan that looks at local changes that need to be made and how to make them happen.
Founded in 2008, the organization describes itself as providing tools, information and opportunities for the community to be involved in to help end poverty in the municipality.
According to Philip Mock, project coordinator, the group recently reexamined some of their goals as an organization and came up with the idea of preparing a comprehensive plan.
"We really sat back and took a hard look at who we are as an organization and what's going on in our community and how we can really change up how we work to make a better impact," he said. "That led us down a path of creating an action plan."
Mock said a large part of building the plan will be connecting directly with community members and connect with those who are currently dealing with poverty and homelessness.
"I could sit in my office and write up a report that could collect dust on my table. That's not what we're doing. We are going right to the community, the experts of what we're trying to do to build a five-year action plan for prosperity for everyone and to end poverty," explained Mock.
"We're looking for business input, we're looking for nonprofit input. We're looking for government and faith-based groups and even people struggling with some of those challenges to share their inputs and thoughts on what is happening now, what needs to change and how can we work together in creative ways to make that change happen," he said.
Mock said that there are several factors the group hopes to address including affordable housing and any challenges that may hinder people's ability to work such as public transit barriers and childcare.
According to statistics on the CK Prosperity Roundtable, one in six people in Chatham-Kent are currently living in poverty. Mock said they will be looking at examples of action plans that other municipalities have implemented to get some inspiration. A large focus of the plan will be on tangible ideas that can get people out of the poverty cycle. He said when it comes to tackling poverty, it oftentimes starts with small, inexpensive and innovative shifts that turn into long term changes with big impacts.
Mock also stressed that they will be working with every community within Chatham-Kent no matter how big or small.
"The whole point of this plan is to create less poor, not better poor," said Mock. "In five years' time, we want to hit targets, that are still being identified, but we want to hit those targets where we see a significant reduction of those numbers of people struggling with the challenges of poverty."
Although the organization is just getting started on the planning stages, Mock said they have already started on the action side of things. In the spring, Prosperity Roundtable held a large meeting with about 130 community leaders and stakeholders to answer questions and get input. According to Mock, transportation was identified as one of the first challenges to focus on.
Recently, a representative for CK Prosperity Roundtable was at the Septembre 23 council meeting, asking council to support a trial run of on-demand CK Transit service, which eventually went on to get approved.
"[The group chose] to come up with creative, really outside the box win-win solution transit options to help people struggling with transit [bariers] while trying to get groceries, trying to get employment opportunities and also to help business owners struggling for employees because transportation can't get them there," said Mock.
The organization is hoping to launch the full comprehensive plan in February 2020.
In late September, the group held several free community barbeques to connect with residents in an informal way. Mock said the next step will be holding town hall meetings across the municipality to get more public feedback on what needs to be done when it comes to poverty in Chatham-Kent.
"I'm sure there are people that are very skeptical and thinking 'good luck, buddy.' When I first heard about this, I was a little skeptical too. But just take the trust, come out to the meetings, just see what we're all about," said Mock. "Let's just start a conversation and see where it goes. That's all I'm asking."
