{"id":175,"date":"2016-04-16T10:55:24","date_gmt":"2016-04-16T14:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/voicesfromthestreet.com\/?p=175"},"modified":"2018-07-11T11:21:39","modified_gmt":"2018-07-11T15:21:39","slug":"real-poverty-experts-learn-speak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voicesfromthestreet.com\/?p=175","title":{"rendered":"Real Poverty Experts Learn To Speak"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/h2>\n

Carol Goar<\/h4>\n

June 22, 2007<\/h4>\n

The way to become an expert on poverty in Canada is to get a university degree, run a social agency, join a think-tank or work as a welfare official.<\/p>\n

Living in poverty doesn\u2019t count. Knowing how it feels to be evicted, stigmatized, dependent on charity or forced to abide by rules devised by middle-class bureaucrats doesn\u2019t count either.<\/p>\n

\u201cProfessional interventions are not as brilliant in life as they seem on paper,\u201d said Mike Creek, a cancer survivor who lost his job, his home, his savings \u2013 everything but his spunk \u2013 to the disease.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are serious about poverty, you\u2019d better have a few poor people at the table.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Creek is one of 14 graduates of a program called Voices from the Street. The 12-week course equips men and women who have experienced poverty and homelessness to speak out, challenge society\u2019s stereotypes and become community leaders.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Their \u201cconvocation\u201d took place in the Malcomson Theatre at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. The audience straggled in and out. The program was a bit ragged. Nobody cared.<\/p>\n

Author and anti-poverty activist Pat Capponi, the group\u2019s coach, mentor, cheerleader and den mother, proudly introduced the class of 2007.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are more than a speakers\u2019 bureau,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have overcome the barriers of shame, passivity and fear. We\u2019ve learned that recovery is possible \u2013 but we can\u2019t wait for the system to recover us.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Then she invited the graduates to tell their stories.<\/p>\n

Dawnmarie Harriott, who fled an abusive relationship, talked about her struggle to hang onto the one thing that mattered in her life her son. She had trouble keeping enough food in the fridge. She got behind in her rent. The Children\u2019s Aid Society visited to see if she was a fit parent \u2013 and concluded, to her relief, that she was.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But the reprieve didn\u2019t last. One night, she had to work late and didn\u2019t get to the daycare centre by closing time. When she arrived, Calvin had been taken away by Children\u2019s Aid.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Harriott now sees him for four hours on Saturdays. She spends the rest of the week trying to prove she deserves her son back. \u201cI would love to be part of a panel to show the Children\u2019s Aid Society the perspective of a parent who loses a child,\u201d Harriott said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mark Dukes grew up in a violent home. He escaped any way he could drugs, liquor, bravado. \u201cThat was the way I drowned out all the sounds in my life,\u201d he recalled. \u201cEverybody thought I was a budding alcoholic or pothead.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

If someone had recognized his isolation, rather than slapping a label on him, he might have been spared years of addiction and pain.<\/strong><\/p>\n

At 33, he is finally pulling himself together. He wants to share the harsh life lessons he\u2019s learned. \u201cInclude people with first-hand knowledge of exclusion in your ranks,\u201d he said. \u201cLet us help.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n

Miguel Dyer thought he could survive on the streets as a teenager. He soon got sucked into the world of gangs and drugs and guns. He enjoyed the money and parties and power. Then he was asked to commit serious crimes. He was scared, but couldn\u2019t get out. He hid in another part of town, but his associates tracked him down. Finally he plunged into mental illness, poverty and homelessness.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He is slowly rebuilding his life, working at a cafe that employs psychiatric survivors. He recently attended a fundraising barbecue in the Jane-Finch neighbourhood to help the family of Jordan Manners, the 15-year-old student shot at school last month, pay for his funeral. The park was full of low-income kids facing the same temptations that once seduced him. \u201cThey need someone they can trust to talk to.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

None of the stories \u2013 which involved incest, mental illness, cancer, racial discrimination and sexual abuse \u2013 fit the conventional image of poverty.<\/p>\n

None of the speakers wanted pity. They wanted to help find answers.<\/p>\n

Credit: Toronto Star<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carol Goar June 22, 2007 The way to become an expert on poverty in Canada is to get a university degree, run a social agency, join a think-tank or work as a welfare official. Living in poverty doesn\u2019t count. Knowing… Continue Reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[25,20,18,26,24,22,17,15,23],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/voicesfromthestreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/voicesfromthestreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/voicesfromthestreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voicesfromthestreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voicesfromthestreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=175"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/voicesfromthestreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":853,"href":"https:\/\/voicesfromthestreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions\/853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/voicesfromthestreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voicesfromthestreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voicesfromthestreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}