Wellbeing through Inclusion Socially & Economically (WISE) began in the
summer of 2003, as one woman's vision. In exasperation with a system that
seemed to have no heart, "Chris" wrote her story of painful
marginalization. With the urging of friends, the story came to the
attention of an understanding Programs Officer at Status of Women Canada.
Together, they convinced Chris to write a proposal for the WISE project.
The rest, as they say, is history.

WISE is now a grassroots group of citizens whose goals include:

- raising the collective voice of persons living in poverty due to
policies of exclusion
- changing public understanding of poverty as a socioeconomic
inevitability, to poverty as a condition of social and economic exclusion
- having policymakers recognize that the worsening economic situation of
an increasing number of British Columbians has a systemic cause

We see our task as primarily being to change public perception and
understanding of what poverty is and how the cycle of poverty is possible.
Until this occurs, policymakers and politicians are unlikely to do more
than pay lip service to the increasing problem of poverty in BC.

WISE's current project "Policies of Exclusion, Poverty and Mental Health:
Stories from the Front," is collecting stories from Cowichan Valley women
who are living at or below Canada's Low Income Cut Offs (LICOs).

We encourage interested parties to visit our website at http://www.wise-
bc.org/

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