Announcement

Poverty Elimination Collaborative Launches New Name and Renewed Model for Change  

Guelph and Wellington County, Monday, November 17, 2025  – A community effort to eliminate poverty in Guelph and Wellington County has unveiled a new name and renewed focus. The former Guelph & Wellington Task Force for Poverty Elimination will now be known as the Guelph & Wellington Poverty Elimination Collaborative (PEC).

The name change highlights the central role of collaboration in the group’s work. The PEC brings together people with lived experience, community organizations, service providers, and decision makers to co-create solutions that address systemic barriers and move the community closer to eliminating poverty.

Building on years of work advancing solutions to the root causes of poverty, the PEC has also launched a new Collaborative Change Model. This shared plan provides a clear, action-oriented framework that puts intersectional lived experience at the centre, recognizing that factors like race, gender, disability, and class shape how people experience poverty. By combining these diverse realities with evidence and advocacy, the model advances system and policy change to drive effective, lasting solutions.

“Our new name and model represent renewed commitment to collaborative action,” said Naima Mohamood and Leen Al-Habash, Co-Chairs of the PEC. “Poverty is complex. Eliminating it requires solutions that reflect that. By working across sectors and centering intersectional lived experience, we can advance solutions that reach the whole community.”  

For those with lived experience of poverty, centering their voices in the work is key. “Our experiences give unique knowledge about what works and what doesn’t. When lived experience is at the centre, solutions become more practical, more just, and more effective. We are ensuring that people most affected by poverty are shaping the changes that matter most,” said Maggie Phelan and Sharon Felker, PEC Community Voices Co-Chairs.

The PEC works alongside community partners to advance upstream solutions in areas such as livable incomes, decent work, affordable housing and homelessness. Partners say the new name and model reflect both where the work has come from and where it is headed: a stronger, more collaborative movement for change.

More information about the Guelph & Wellington Poverty Elimination Collaborative and its new Change Model can be found at: www.gwpoverty.ca/our-change-model