Nunavut anti-poverty team eye “Feeding My Family”

About 30 people met last week in Cambridge Bay to talk more about poverty reduction in the Kitikmeot region. (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NUNAVUT ROUNDTABLE FOR POVERTY REDUCTION)

Alex Buchan discusses the importance of gaining a good education, and a good job to relieve poverty impacts in Nunavut communities during the last week’s meeting on poverty reduction in Cambridge Bay. (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NUNAVUT ROUNDTABLE FOR POVERTY REDUCTION)

Nunavut’s anti-poverty secretariat is looking at Leesee Papatsie’s “Feeding my family” Facebook page, which now lists more than 21,000 members, with admiration and even perhaps a touch of envy.

“Most people think that Facebook page is a bit of a milestone and it’s inspired a lot of people,” said Ed McKenna, the director of the Nunavut Anti-poverty secretariat.

The efforts of Nunavut Roundtable for Poverty to reduce poverty in the territory could use as much support, discussion and attention, he said.

“We really need to strengthen the network on a big public issue like this and involve the communities in Nunavut,” said McKenna.

The Facebook page for the Nunavut Roundtable for Poverty has only about 150 “likes.”

The secretariat plans to redo its website so it’s more interactive and make more use of social media, McKenna said, with the goal of moving the Makimaniq plan forward.

The anti-poverty Makimaniq plan, released last February, is aimed at action, he said.

And to that end, members of the anti-poverty secretariat have held regional meetings to see “how are we going to do that.”

“That’s our task this year — to move from the identification of the issues to taking action on the issues,” McKenna said.

Community mobilization — more than any new source of money — is likely to be the key to carrying out the Makimaniq plan, which has “self-reliance as a guiding principle,” said Nunavut Premier Eva Aariak after last November’s poverty summit in Iqaluit.

“Nobody ever said it [the Makimaniq plan] would result in a lot of new government spending,” said McKenna. “That’s not a realistic expectation, and not what people in the communities are asking for us. That’s not what we hear.”

People want support to address poverty “themselves in their own way,” he said.

Last week members of the anti-poverty secretariat were in Cambridge Bay for a regional gathering intended to help advance the plan. That meeting, which drew about 30 people from four Kitikmeot communities, was similar to one held last month in Rankin Inlet.

McKenna said the goal of the “gatherings” (a word he prefers to meetings) is to get people — who earlier participated in roundtable discussions on how to combat poverty in their communities — thinking about implementation of their ideas and the overall plan.

“There’s a whole range of activities that people are already undertaking in the six themes in Makimaniq, “ said McKenna, adding that it’s just a matter of mobilizing people around these.

The “Makimaniq Plan: A Shared Approach to Poverty Reduction,” mapped out goals the Government of Nunavut and its partners hope to reach over the next 18 months.

Those themes include:

• health and wellness;

• education skills and development;

• food security and access to country foods;

• housing and income support;

• collaboration and community participation; and,

• community and economic development

The plan also includes a GN pledge to draft poverty reduction legislation, which would develop policies and ensure long-term progress on the plan.