Colour of Poverty/Colour of Change (COP-COC) is a province wide campaign made up of individuals and organizations working to build community-based capacity to address the growing racialization of poverty and the resulting increased levels of social exclusion and marginalization of racialized communities – both First Peoples and peoples of colour – in Ontario.
COP-COC sees the Review as an opportunity to improve access to income security for members of racialized groups – both Canadian born and immigrant communities, as well as other low-income Ontarians, and we hope to achieve this by ensuing that the particular experience of racialized and immigrant communities are being captured in the Review. Racialized communities and immigrant communities do not access social assistance the same way as do individuals from the rest of society.
To facilitate the participation by social assistance recipients from the various racialized communities (largely voices of peoples of colour) in the review, COP-COC – in partnership with its member organizations – undertook a series of activities with a view to gathering input from members of these diverse communities, especially those who have either accessed the social assistance system or have worked with individuals who do rely – or have relied – on social assistance.
The collective views of the individual social assistance recipients and organizational representatives form the basis of this COP-COC report and its recommendations, and are summarized in this report.
Download the Racialized Communities Consultations Report here