October 2010

Tamarack has just released a report on Vibrant Communities - a place-based, community collaborative initiative focused on poverty reduction in Canada.  It covers the results and learning from 9 years of several initiatives actively learning together across Canada. Vibrant Communities built on an earlier 4 year initiative in Waterloo, Ontario.

This report, Vibrant Communities Canada 2002-2010 Evaluation Report, is an engaging and illuminating read, for the impressive tangible results and also for:

• the wide variation of approaches within each initiative - definitely not one size fits all
• the continued adaptation and refinement of the learning and outcomes approach over the 9 years of Vibrant Communities operation
• the multiple partners supporting the overall Vibrant Communities initiative.

"The report highlights key results and offers deeper understanding of the critical success factors, effectiveness and patterns identified through the VC experiment –learning that can be the template to inspire new ideas and strategies in communities across Canada. Vibrant Communities has become, and hopefully will continue to be, one of Canada's best poverty reduction strategies.

Together, Vibrant Communities Partners have: 

• Launched 164 poverty reduction initiatives
• Reduced poverty for more than 170,000 households in Canada
• Raised $19.5 million, mostly of it in local communities
• Engaged 1,690 organizations as partners including more than 500 businesses
• Mobilized 1,080 individuals as partners, including 573 people living in poverty
• And, driven 35 substantive government policy changes.

Today, national sponsors of Vibrant Communities Canada released an unprecidented report of a nine-year experiment that demonstrates the positive impacts of an innovative and collaborative approach to fighting poverty that is driving individual benefits, neighborhood changes and large scale community poverty reductions.

For nearly a decade now, a wide range of partners have formed leadership tables in more than a dozen communities across Canada, giving new momentum to the work of poverty reduction.

More than a hope or a dream, they have made it a living, breathing reality. Joined by the Vibrant Communities initiative, citizens of all income levels, community workers, business people and representatives from all levels of government are clarifying needs, identifying community assets and developing tangible strategies for tackling poverty.

Our experience is proving an important role for place-based strategies when it comes to reducing poverty. Community collaboration is showing promising and powerful results.

Launched in 2002, Vibrant Communities Canada builds on learning generated by Opportunities 2000, a millennium campaign to reduce poverty in Waterloo Region to the lowest in Canada, which received the United Nations Top 40 Projects Worldwide.

The Vibrant Communities approach emphasizes collaboration and consensus building across sectors; comprehensive thinking and action; building community assets; and a commitment to long-term learning and change.  It is a self-fuelling change model where progress creates greater capacity, leading to new programs and more systematic interventions.  The end result is improved lives and less people living in poverty.

We can now imagine one million people less poor.  Through Vibrant Communities initiatives, more than 170,000 already are."

Click on the links to: download the report, download the executive summary of the report, or visit the VC Evaluation webpage and learn about the Vibrant Communities experience.