Essay on Developing Poverty Reduction Plan: Engaging Stakeholders & Grassroots Individuals

Introduction

Developing the poverty reduction plan would require the involvement of different stakeholders in the locality. The plan requires to be inclusive, and thus it needs representation from the people in such a comprehensive manner. The first batch of people who would be involved is community leaders. These leaders would be drawn from those who are employed by the government as well as those who are employed by the community leaders. Also, select grassroots individuals would be taken to sit as part of the poverty plan formulation committee. Having representatives from the community and government leaders would give a satisfying overview of the issues that are being faced by the members of the community, and the best approaches to utilize would inevitably be realized. The idea of hefty representation would need to include at least 30 members to ensure smooth communication and collaboration while still having an actual view of the current situation.

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I recommend that the plan addresses four main areas of consideration will be income security, housing and homelessness, early childhood development, education and training, health and food security, and protecting the vulnerable people. In the aspect of income security, the plan will address how employment opportunities can be increased and job security for the jobs guaranteed. In housing and homelessness, the plan will seek to inform the necessary measures of affordable housing. In the view of early childhood, the problem will stress on the need for an impeccable process of raising children in a healthy environment where they are raised safely. Additionally, the plan will seek to make education more affordable by processing ways of subsidizing education fees and creating more educational centers. The plan will also discuss the available mechanisms for ensuring that the people are safe and have enough to feed on. Lastly, social approaches will be devised to ensure that vulnerable families, people, and societies are protected from the humbling effects of poverty, such as by sensitizing them on available mechanisms of avoiding poverty.

If the proposed strategy is used, there will be a way to sustain a strong economy. The economy will definitely when the members of society are employed. When citizens have a higher level of disposable income, they will engage in other activities that help overcome poverty, such as by helping poor people with supplies in case they are in need. The plan generally addresses the critical areas of society that cause poverty and, if addressed, guarantee eradication of poverty.

Alternatives to Homelessness

Homelessness is indeed an issue that faces a significant share of people across the globe, and Canada is not an exception. The housing first approach seeks to initiate a way to view housing as a way to eliminate homelessness in Canada as a social welfare policy. Homelessness is indeed an issue In Canada that faces a significant share of the Canadian population. But looking at homelessness in the aspect of a housing problem can be a head-start for making changes that would help homeless people (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2009). As opposed to analyzing the problem in the aspects of poverty and economic lines, the housing first approach seeks first to consider a way where homeless people can be provided with shelter and transitional housing before they finally stabilize economically and be able to afford their housing. The housing first approach seeks to provide the most basic services of shelter to homeless people even after they relapse back to the homeless after having moved into their own shelter.

The housing first is guided by the principles of sustainability. It views shelter as a basic human right for every person residing in Canada. Everyone, therefore, is entitled to housing even when they cannot afford it. The other principle is that where permanent housing cannot be provided for a homeless person, they should be housed until they can afford and sustain themselves. Therefore, based on the two precepts, actions that need to be taken under the housing first approach will be inclusive of emergency services that seek to offer immediate shelter or stabilization for a person who has recently become homeless (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2009). Also, the program does not just seek to offer homeless people a house to live in but also services to help them sustain the new housing environment accorded to them. Also, placement in housing is a duty of social welfare provided under the approach, and it may include payment of their rent in the first few months and utilities.

In summation, the housing first method is a different strategy of tackling homeless, which is different from the traditional approach of helping homeless people. While the conventional approach took much time and had many bureaucracies, the housing first approach seeks to ensure that at no single point is an individual who is homeless. It views housing as a right for everyone inclusive of those who cannot afford and not as a privilege as the traditional mechanism views it. A series of objective responses indicated under the new approach will help contain the levels of homeless in Canada in an excellent manner.

Workfare and Basic Income Policies

Evans (2009), in an expansive way, analyzes social welfare in the context of lone mothers and how they are affected by workfare and precarious employment. The author also seeks to explore whether basic income may be used as a mechanism to address the adverse effects of lone mothers, which is created by workfare and precarious employment. Gender inequity seems to be sponsored by the workfare policy and precarious employment in such a great way for the lone mothers. At the same time, considering that social assistance income support depends on the policies of workfare, it is necessary to observe that lone mothers are at risk of never receiving them (Evans, 2009). Apparent gender inequity is creating by the phenomenon because while others such as male workers enjoy more social assistance, lone mothers may never enjoy them as they use the tie in addressing the needs of their kids and raising their families alone.

The workfare strategy, as articulated, does not seem to be gender discriminating. It is depicted as a gender-neutral approach that but practically it is distinctly gendered while observed in the lens of lone mothers. Workfare is a method of additional rewards to employees which they earn when they participate in employment-related activities such as social assistance. Though not conditional employees who fulfill this employment seem to enjoy an upper hand in employment and in earnings too (Evans, 2009). Many lone mothers often find these types of jobs precarious as they find it difficult even to balance their work engagements and raising their families. The method, therefore, cannot be used to enhance gender inequity as it leaves a large group out of the equation, which entails lone mothers.

Besides, to enhance gender equity in income support, it is necessary to consider a dimensionally new way of providing income support. One of the considerations that can be made is given the basic income. The basic income needs to be revised to ensure that it covers certain people like those with disabilities and lone mothers (Evans, 2009). A small increase in their basic income would be a more fulfilling way of ensuring that their counterparts do not earn additional high incomes when they have meager income. An additional strategy may involve providing them with services such as child support that can have them get the chance to also engage in workfare activities. The latter may, however, only be utilized in case an increase in their basic income is not viable.

Social Policy and Children's Welfare

McKeen (2006), arguments about social policy that has been made to address the issue of child poverty and wellness at the meso level. The author argues that major conferences and sittings have been made in an attempt to address the problem. However, he argues that the meso realm has not been indeed used on the making of policy but in debating these policies. Whereas advocacy for the wellness of children across the nation is on the rise, little is being done to address to incorporate the needs of children in the national income security programs (McKeen, 2006). Debates should be conceptualized in a deeper manner with a closer analysis of children who are suffering from being done. Broader social impacts of the stresses of modern life and family case-by-case analysis should be adopted at the meso level should be adopted in the formulation of policy as McKeen proposes. But since such perspectives have not been made use of, there is still wide, inequality, poverty and discrimination and injustice regardless of the rising meso advocacy.

The UNICEF Report Card 14 ranks Canada in the 25th position after an analysis of how the top 41 countries in the world ensure the safety and health of their children. The report agrees with the assertions made by McKeen that much has not been realized even after advocacy efforts have been expansive. The observation of the wellbeing of the children in the Canadian space, as observed in the report, surrounded health, growth, safety. From the report, 22.2% of children live in poverty. 22% of the youths in Canada had mental health issues and were once suicidal (Truesdell, 2017). Also, Canada has a very high rate of child homicide more than most of the developed economies. Indeed, children's homicide is the fourth cause of death among people from the age of 1-24. A significant share of children in the nation are also deprived of nutrition necessities, and they experience learning and social dysfunctions as a result. Therefore, it is true that Canada needs to make more changes in social policy to ensure that it protects its kids and provides them with a more effective livelihood, as UNICEF proposes.

Child Maltreatment-Data and Prevention

As of 2015, the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect reported that child neglect and maltreatment in the nation was still high. Interventions at the micro, messo, and macro levels were not effective in preventing child maltreatment. Data from different territories, provinces, and cities in the nation proved that there was an increased need for a continued multiagency approach towards addressing child maltreatment. Child maltreatment was observed in the bases of whether they were issued a sufficient place to call home, were provided the necessities such as food and clothing and education (Tonmyr, 2015). By 2013, an estimated 62,000 children were living without basic provisions or were homeless. Above that, they lacked the protection and basic commodities that they needed as children. Failures in the micro, messo, and macro levels of social welfare can be seen from the onslaught. The high number of children and youths maltreated via a lack of basic resources can be prevented only when the nation adopts policy changes that are succinct.

At the micro-level, policy change needs to be rectified. The change should entail meeting children who have been neglected. The policymakers will need to meet more of the children who have been maltreated and understand their problems. This dimensional change will make the policymakers who help more of the abused to either revert back to normalcy or to provide them with the necessary. On the messo level policy change will need to entail meeting families and groups and sensitize them about child development. The effort will be essential because it will help contain instances of child maltreatment. They will inform societies that are observed to be most hit by the poor treatment of children about the essence of treating children we...