A new resource is available to tackle the issue of rural poverty.
The United Way of Bruce Grey and the Rural Women Take Action on Poverty Committee Friday released the book “Counting Women In: A Toolkit for Rural Action on Poverty”.
Project Coordinator Colleen Purdon says the toolkit provides strategies to change attitudes and stereotypes about poverty.
Purdon says this is a follow up to their handbook “How We Count”, which outlined the services and supports available for rural women in poverty.
She says while researching that project, they found that the negative behaviours and attitudes that women experience in rural communities make it hard for them to live with poverty and even harder to get out of poverty.
Purdon says for the Toolkit, the committee researched and implemented pilot projects in Grey, Bruce, Huron, and Perth counties over the last three years.
They then developed five strategies for understanding and changing attitudes about poverty.
Those strategies are gathering the community to talk about poverty, getting the facts about poverty and dispelling the myths, celebrating women and their contributions, engaging municipal decision makers, and building partnerships.
Purdon says the Toolkit then outlines ways in which you can implement the strategies, from how to’s on making presentations to municipal councils to starting a community arts project.
Purdon says she hopes everyone uses the Toolkit, from municipal governments to service providers to women living in poverty themselves.
With the grant money available, Purdon says they were able to print 500 copies of the Toolkit at a cost of 9-thousand dollars.
It is also being published online at www.unitedwaybrucegrey.com and www.endabusenow.ca