Community-based Poverty Reduction: The Québec Experience

Early this year, the Caledon Institute of Social Policy commissioned my worker co-operative, La Coopérative de consultation en développement La Clé, to produce five case studies of organizations involved in community-based poverty reduction activities in Québec. The purpose of this document is to provide background information to readers of the case studies who may be less familiar with the Québec context. To grasp the Québec experience with community-based poverty reduction, I believe that one needs some knowledge about the following:

a) Québec history and culture
b) the public health and welfare system here
c) community organizations in Québec as well as its women’s and labour movements
d) the various strategies put forward by the Québec government since the mid-1960s to alleviate poverty
e) theoretical constructs such as social development and the social economy.

This paper attempts to shed light on these subjects. However, what follows is neither a comprehensive nor an exhaustive portrait of the Québec context. It offers basic information deemed helpful for appreciating the community-based poverty reduction initiatives presented in the case studies.

This document is produced by William Ninacs and La Coopérative de consultation en développement La Clé for the Caledon Institute of Social Policy.

Community-based Poverty Reduction- The Québec Experience – PDF