Covid 19 and the Newly Vulnerable

The global pandemic has created massive disruption in life as usual, including amplifying the systemic injustices that impact people in poverty. In partnership with the Tamarack Institute’s Cities Reducing Poverty network, the Canadian Poverty Institute is seeking to understand how COVID-19 has changed the face of poverty in Canada. Working in six communities across Canada, the project focuses on the “newly vulnerable”: those who were not in poverty but have been put at risk due to economic and social pressures linked to the pandemic. Participating communities include Calgary, Alberta; Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; London, Ontario; Region of Peel, Ontario; the Counties of Perth-Huron, Ontario; and Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

The project involves an exploration of this relatively unknown population of newly vulnerable in an unprecedented social context of a global pandemic. With funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the goals of this project are to (1) identify the characteristics of who is newly vulnerable and the gaps in service facing this group, (2) how the face of poverty and precarity is changing post-COVID, and (3) strategies that members of the CPR could develop to address these emerging needs. The project is being led by Dr. Jim Cresswell, Professor of Psychology.

Research Findings

The following series of videos provides an update on the project’s research findings.

• Introduction

• Understanding Poverty

• Systems Map

• Impacts of Covid19

• Characteristics of the Newly Vulnerable

• Features and Circumstances of People in Poverty

• Experiences of Community and Environmental Circumstances and Political Views