What is poverty?

According to the Canadian Poverty Institute, poverty is not merely about a lack of money. Instead, it is a multidimensional condition that involves "a lack of power and choice, and disconnection from the broader community." Here are the three interlinking dimensions of poverty that they use:

• Material poverty exists where people lack access to, or the skills to acquire, sufficient material and financial resources to thrive.
• Social poverty exists where people are isolated and lack the formal and informal supports necessary to be resilient in times of crisis and change.
• Spiritual poverty exists where people lack meaning in their lives and connection to a faith community that sustains them.

My personal additions: I would extend the meaning of spiritual poverty to include the tools for growth, reflection, and building of consciousness. I see that most of us are impoverished with respect to taking action in our personal lives and collective lives (organizing & activism). I see that it is rooted in the inability to truly work with ourselves which limits the connection to ourselves and subsequently with others (see SPIRIT-WORK-A).

The definition of loneliness as the lack of ability to touch ourselves relates to spiritual and social poverty.

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REFERENCES

https://www.povertyinstitute.ca