Communities Under Pressure: The Role of Co-operatives and the Social Economy
Synthesis Report
June 2006

How can organizations help individuals and communities respond to and benefit from globalization? Why should governments support some organizations but not others? How can research inform the development of best practices? One hundred or so researchers, policy makers and practitioners spent a day in March exploring these and other hard questions. This synthesis report provides some answers and suggestions for future research.

Why Financial Capability Matters
Synthesis Report
March 2006

According to Why Financial Capability Matters, a synthesis report based on the symposium “Canadians and Their Money,” oftentimes, Canadians may not be well prepared for making financial decisions. The report makes several recommendations towards improving our understanding of this capability and identifies possible next steps. Recommendations include pursuit of a national research agenda, an exploration of ways to improve and coordinate public policy around financial capability, a more active role for the private sector and an increased emphasis on the role of the community sector in serving vulnerable groups.

Combatting the Social Exclusion of At-Risk Groups
Research Paper
November 2005

In Canada, it has been shown that some groups are particularly at risk of long-term poverty and social exclusion. They include lone-parents, older unattached individuals, off-reserve aboriginal individuals, recent immigrants, and persons with work-limiting disabilities. Equally vulnerable to social exclusion are children from low-income households. This paper offers a taxonomy of measures used in both Canada and Europe to help these groups and individuals out of their predicament. While most of the measures are familiar to policy makers and social activists, the challenge lies in the coordination and management of these approaches.

Housing Policy and Practice in the Context of Poverty and Exclusion
Synthesis Report
August 2005

Housing challenges often play a role in poverty and exclusion as both a determinant and an outcome. Following a PRI-SSHRC Policy Research Roundtable on this topic and subsequent research by the PRI, this paper explores these connections, outlines the situation in Canada, and assesses ways to improve housing and poverty outcomes.

What We Need to Know About the Social Economy
Other
July 2005

The guide provides background on the social economy, identifies research issues whose examination would support the development of policies and programs, provides suggestions for how this research might be conducted, and points to some useful information sources.

Poverty and Exclusion: Normative Approaches to Policy Research
Discussion Paper
November 2004

The understanding of equality issues that informed our current social policy infrastructure predated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Case law dealing with human, equality, and international rights has evolved significantly in the interim. Moreover, Canada's adherence to several international human rights agreements has not, by and large, been reflected in Canadian law or in domestic policy making. This report examines these normative shifts, and makes a case for the systematic, front-loaded integration of legal norms into horizontal policy development.

Financial Capability and Poverty
Discussion Paper
August 2004

This discussion paper, prepared by the Social and Enterprise Development Innovations (SEDI), focuses on developing financial literacy as a complementary strategy to asset building through a review of existing research and current initiatives in Canada and abroad.