Community Voices

Lifting Lived Experience into Leadership

Community Voices is a powerful collective of individuals with grounded expertise through their lived and living experience of poverty and limited resources. Far more than an advisory group, they are catalysts for change—driving equity-focused policies and challenging systemic barriers within the Poverty Task Force and beyond.

These advocates bring authenticity, insight, and professionalism to the table, which has earned them widespread respect and recognition. Their expertise is increasingly sought by community organizations, policy-makers, and service agencies on critical issues such as housing, income, transportation, food security, and precarious work.

Leading by Example, Driving Change

Community Voices members actively engage with municipal leaders, labour representatives, and business stakeholders to elevate the realities of people living in poverty. Through direct dialogue and policy input, they shape decisions affecting marginalized communities, working tirelessly for health equity, income security, and accessible transportation and housing.

Their impact has been nationally recognized. The Tamarack Institute’s 2019 guide TEN: Engaging People with Lived/Living Experience: a guide for including people in poverty reduction features the work of Grey and Bruce County’s Community Voices as a model of authentic inclusion (Story 10, pg 35).

Building Evidence, Challenging Systems

As participants in the Rentsafe Tenant Advocates Network  and research partners in the Above Standard Housing Project and RentSafe Owen Sound Collaborative, Community Voices members are generating evidence and raising awareness about substandard housing conditions in Grey Bruce.  Their videos, stories, and participation in Learning Circles have shifted the way housing partners and agencies understand the lived experience of poverty. 

They are also taking a stand on income insecurity and food insecurity by engaging in Food Security Conversations and contributing to provincial policy discussions around payday loans and alternative financial services by mainstream banks. 

Changing Narratives, Inspiring Action

Community Voices is not just reacting to policy—they are shaping it. From the development of the We All Live Here education campaign to their formal policy submission on Diversity and Inclusion of People on Low Income to the City of Owen Sound, these leaders are rewriting the narrative on poverty and inclusion in rural communities.

Their voices were instrumental in a community dialogue on rural poverty with MPP Ted McMeekin, contributing directly to the provincial Rural Poverty Report. Their presence is not symbolic—they are partners in the struggle for dignity, fairness, and social justice.