The BC Poverty Reduction Strategy recognizes that “poverty doesn’t affect all people equally. Indigenous peoples, transgender people, people of colour, refugees, and people with disabilities all face more barriers and higher rates of poverty… Indigenous peoples and people with disabilities are twice as likely to live in poverty. Poverty is an intersectional problem.”
There are skilled people living at those intersections, specifically trans, non-binary, and 2-Spirit BIPOC people whose lived experience and professional capacity positions them uniquely to offer solutions and uplift the most marginalized in community. In creating well-paid, well-supported positions for skilled workers with lived experience in poverty and homelessness, our province is investing in more inclusive, resilient, and creative communities.
This is a proposal for the creation of well-paid and well-supported roles for skilled trans, nonbinary, and 2-Spirit BIPOC people to do essential frontline support work and systemic policy change work:
- Create at least two well-paid, well-supported outreach worker positions at the Broadway Youth Resource Centre, Vancouver, BC.
- Hire two to four outreach workers with two or more years’ experience to inform ongoing poverty reduction strategy and commitments.
- Creation of scholarships/ grants to enable trans, non-binary, 2S BIPOC people to access education and enter roles as outreach, child, and youth support workers.