Prosper Canada attends Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference

On May 30th, 2019, we were thrilled to officially launch Prosperity Gateways - Cities for Financial Empowerment, a new initiative to help cities combat poverty through financial empowerment.    
 

Collaborating with the City of Edmonton and City of Toronto, the first two cities to join the initiative, Prosperity Gateways - Cities for Financial Empowerment aims to help city governments reduce poverty by building financial help into city services used by residents with low incomes. Financial help includes education, coaching/counselling, free tax clinics, and help accessing income benefits. Research shows that building these supports into services like community housing, homeless shelters, social assistance and employment programs has a ‘super vitamin’ effect – measurably improving service outcomes, as well as the incomes and financial health of residents.   
 

To promote this pioneering initiative and introduce it to federal, provincial and municipal influencers and capacity builders, Prosper Canada CEO, Elizabeth Mulholland and Director of Program Delivery and Integration, Marlene Chiarotto attended this year’s annual Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) Conference in Quebec City, Quebec from May 30-June 2, 2019.   
 

“Many people in Canada are struggling to achieve financial stability today due to volatile incomes, few workplace benefits, increasing household debt and increasingly complex financial products," said Marlene Chiarotto. “Unfortunately, people living on low-to-moderate incomes have very few places to get the trusted, high quality, free financial help they and their families need to prosper. Prosper Canada sees financial empowerment as a game changer for municipal poverty reduction efforts and we are excited about supporting our many cross-sectoral partners across Canada to make this innovative solution a reality in every community.”
  

At the FCM conference Liz and Marlene were able to meet and engage with a number of leaders, influencers and capacity builders from different cities, opening the door to new avenues for Prosperity Gateways – Cities for Financial Empowerment to be explored.  
 

Learn more about Prosperity Gateways.