No Cherries Grow on Our Trees - gendering Ontario's poverty reduction strategy

Earlier in December, I blogged about the release of the provincial government's Poverty Reduction Strategy report and the response from anti-racism groups, including the Colour of Poverty network.

This week, METRAC, the Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children, shared concerns about the exclusion of women’s realities from the Strategy. No consideration of the gendered dimensions of poverty was included, despite the November launch of METRAC’s report on the subject, No Cherries Grow on Our Trees.

You can read the full METRAC release below and I will post a link to the full report when it is available.

MEDIA RELEASE
December 16, 2008

Ontario Women’s Groups decry lack of gender focus in Province’s Poverty Reduction Strategy.

More than 50 women’s agencies from across Ontario partnered in a policy research paper designed to inform the government of the female gendered nature of poverty. Submitted to Minister Deb Mathew’s office last month, the report titled “No Cherries Grow On Our Trees” concludes and provides clear evidence that:

• Women are disproportionaly affected by poverty and in particular Aboriginal, racialized, older and immigrant women and women with disabilities.
• Women’s poverty often traps them in abusive intimate, employment, and caregiving relationships.
• Violence and poverty in Ontario are seriously impacting women’s human rights and their physical, emotional and spiritual health.

The project was funded by United Way Toronto and designed by the Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children (METRAC) in an effort to address child poverty by acknowledging the poverty of their (often single parent) mothers. The research was conducted by Janet Mosher, Assistant Dean of Law at York University and contains numerous recommendations for change.

“Although the Ministry indicated their support of our work before they released their plan, we are dismayed that the Poverty Reduction Strategy has no meaningful analysis regarding gender, poverty’s connections to violence, and the impact of race”. says Project Coordinator Nora Currie.

Wendy Komiotis, Exectutive Director of METRAC adds: “At a time of economic recession, in a month of hyper consumerism- that also commemorates the reality of violence in women’s lives - we regret that our political leaders did not hear the voices, analyses and recommendations of experts in the area of poverty and violence and especially those women and their children who experience it daily”

An Executive Summary and the full version of No Cherries Grow on our Trees with a list of the project partners are attached below. For further information and interviews please contact:

Nora Currie
METRAC
416-929-0580