The Cranbrook Social Planning Society will be hosting its fifth Cranbrook Thrives Luncheon on October 19 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Heritage Inn, thanks to a grant received last year from the United Way East Kootenay.

The fifth luncheon will feature Kerri Wall from Interior Health (pictured above) and Angela Beddome who will represent the Cranbrook Poverty Reduction Committee.

The Cranbrook Poverty Reduction Committee got off the ground in 2012 with support from the City of Cranbrook, many local social services agencies, School District No. 5, the Ministry of Children and Family Development, among others. The goal since the beginning has been to understand what it means to live on low income here in Cranbrook and how to mitigate its effects, as well as to determine the barriers to prosperity and how to overcome them.

In the last four years many changes have happened with the Cranbrook Poverty Reduction Committee and much has been learned. Political shifts at the local and provincial level have affected their work, and exciting partnerships have been formed with organizations like the Cranbrook Social Planning Society, the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition, Tamarack Institute, and the Columbia Basin Rural Development Institute.

“One in five children in B.C. are growing up in poverty,” said Donna Brady Fields, executive director of United Way East Kootenay and a member of the Cranbrook Poverty Reduction Committee. “Our vulnerable young ones have so little power to change their circumstances. But the effects are long-lasting for all of us – the health care system, education, and policing – are all burdened by poverty.”

Thanks to recent funding from the Columbia Basin Trust, poverty consultant Angela Beddome has just been hired to complete a five-month contract with the Cranbrook Poverty Reduction Committee. Angela is looking forward to pulling together some local data about poverty in our community and hosting some facilitated conversations to get a deeper picture of the issue.

Focused on the needs of not-for-profit organizations in the East Kootenay, the Cranbrook Thrives luncheon series consist of luncheons that enable attendees the opportunity to network with other not-for-profit organizations while benefiting from the expertise of a keynote speaker.

Tickets for the luncheon are $10 each, which includes lunch. Register here.

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