Our Approach
The Poverty Reduction Strategy Office uses a community wealth building approach to advance inclusive economic development in the City of Toronto and to guide the work of AnchorTO.
Community wealth building can be driven by anchor institutions (place-based, mission-driven entities such as hospitals, universities and government agencies). Anchors can develop social procurement policies which use an organization’s purchases to drive social impact in local communities.
Examples of this work in action include intentionally supporting minority-owned or Indigenous-led businesses through purchasing or prioritizing purchases from high impact social enterprises. Anchors can use social procurement to keep wealth circulating locally, creating additional benefits for community and empowering equity-deserving groups.
Community Wealth Building
Existing economic systems do not serve everyone equally and have resulted in a generation that expects to make less than that of their parents. Community wealth building seeks to address imbalances embedded into these systems. It is a more inclusive approach that pursues fairer outcomes and wider participation by putting more control in the hands of local communities and by increasing support for diversely-owned businesses and social enterprises.
Social Procurement
An important component of community wealth building is social procurement. Social procurement is an organization’s practice of using existing investments in infrastructure and the purchase of goods and services to generate social and economic value. Organizations include anchor institutions (e.g. governments, universities, hospitals and transit authorities) and large private sector employers (e.g. a consortium contracted by a government to build infrastructure).
Results of social procurement can include the creation of employment opportunities for job-seekers experiencing recruitment barriers as well as the creation of equitable business opportunities for diverse suppliers and social enterprises. Supporters of social procurement position it as a promising method to generate inclusive community economic development, ultimately reducing poverty and improving well-being.
