By Angie Peters (President/CEO, Yonge St. Mission) and Allison Alley (President/CEO, World Vision Canada)

Here’s the premise: If you care about foreign aid, you must also care about domestic aid. And, if you care about poverty in your own community, you must also care about the systems and crises that perpetuate it around the world. 

If we accept the premise, the question becomes how do we show that duality of care when the weight of suffering feels so immense and heavy, and our actions feel so small and insignificant in comparison? Well, we believe it begins with bridging gaps in connection.

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body…so there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. (1 Corinthians 12:12–27) So it is with the world.

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Allison Alley:  This article—this conversation—it’s about reimagining how we personally contextualize poverty and generosity. Poverty isn’t something that happens over there or to someone else; it’s a shared human condition. Over the past six years World Vision Canada has reached more than 63 million people. That’s more than the entire population of Canada. Christian organizations that focus their resources on vulnerable people locally have also supported millions of people in Canada.

As Christians we’re called to love our neighbours and scripture doesn’t define neighbours by geography. When we neglect global poverty, we eventually feel those consequences at home through strain on our systems and global economic instability. When we neglect local poverty, the effects are the same. Toronto or South Sudan—it’s all part of the same story.

Angie Peters: Absolutely right, Allison. As Christians we value every neighbour as someone created in God’s image, and we hear Jesus’ call in Matthew 25:40 to give food, drink, clothing and time to those in need as though they are Jesus himself. We all need adequate income, stable housing, healthy and nutritious food, access to healthcare, and education. And, whether locally or internationally, it is often due to a series of interconnected issues that someone becomes vulnerable. For example, in Toronto, a lack of affordable housing combined with the rising cost of groceries and low wages has meant that now 1 in 10 people in the city must rely on food banks to survive. Even someone who is steadily employed can be forced to choose between buying food and paying rent.  

Allison: You’ve pointed out something important, because the cost-of-living crisis is reshaping how Canadians can engage with generosity. At World Vision we are seeing that decline in generosity. Private donations are down eight per cent year over year, which means fewer children will receive support. This is the moment when Canadians must lean into purposeful action, rather than retreat into survival mode. 

I have visited a 24-7 shelter run by a local church, where residents have been pooling their resources to donate to those living in poverty globally. The people there have very little materials, but they recognize that they have more than some—shelter and services. The staff at the church set up the donation on behalf of these residents, because they wanted to give. What a testament to our culture of compassion in Canada, that even in times of hardship the desire to help others persists. 

Angie: Yes, I believe people want to help, but sometimes they don’t know how, or they question if their efforts are having lasting impact. Individual actions do add up, it’s just that we don’t always get to see how the choice to help unfolds over time. At YSM, people return years later to tell us how their lives were impacted through our organization: our foodbank helped their family through a difficult stretch, or a volunteer tutor at the computer lab changed the life of a young person, and in extension their whole family. 

We often encourage donors to invest over the long haul and journey with a trusted agency for several years, or more. The work is complex and goes far beyond meeting immediate needs. We want to give relief to a neighbour who is hungry, but also work together to end the long-term experience of poverty and help people take strides towards the fullness of life that God wants for all his children (John 10:10). 

 

Allison: Immediate relief is only one dimension of this work—that’s why World Vision’s approach to humanitarian aid is “first in, last out”. When we stick around for the long haul, as Angie puts it, we can develop the groundwork for communities to thrive long-term. However, to meet the need we must be strategic and policy driven. Our Policy Lead, Martin Fischer, argues that the development sector has struggled to build public understanding about the real value of aid. Current polling shows that only 13 per cent of Canadians think international aid should be a top foreign affairs priority, compared to 31 per cent 10 years ago (Angus Reid). What does that say about our global empathy?

We easily grasp threats that feel close—like defense, trade and inflation—but the domestic impact of global poverty is harder to see. I suggest it’s not a failure of empathy, but a gap in connection. A foreign policy that prioritizes global stability helps alleviate stressors on Canadian systems. Pitting local and global needs against each other is a reductive narrative; they are deeply intertwined. Our calling doesn’t change with public sentiment or political convenience, it’s rooted in the unwavering compassion of Christ. 

Angie: Yes! And what if every person chose to help one person, whether locally or internationally, in a way they can? It could be helping someone find a job, or driving them to appointments, or donating to an agency that does good work. We all have something that we can give to make a difference. In my book Just Act: We are the Solution to Poverty, I shared a simple six step process that anyone can follow to come up with the one thing they are uniquely capable of doing to help someone take the next critical step on their journey out of poverty. We don’t have to hold back because we can’t solve the whole problem. We can commit to doing our part, over and over again. 

We see this all the time at YSM. For example, once a week a retiree volunteers time to help prepare meals for vulnerable youth. A pastor drops off cases of bottled water and boxes of diapers from his church. A corporate team volunteers time to help prepare community members for job interviews. Each act of generosity is in proportion to what each person is able to give, and collectively the generosity has an incredible impact.

Allison: Those examples of generosity are powerful. To sustain and scale that generosity we must innovate in this turbulent era. At WVC, we’re pivoting to engage youth—fostering future philanthropists through school and youth group engagement. We are also the first Canadian non-profit to build our own AI-enabled system—Real ImpactTM 360—to track and analyze impact data from our programming. This summer we deployed a front-end to this system, which is communicating personalized and timely updates to donors. If we want to see Canadians continue to engage with this work, they need to see that their efforts—big or small—are part of a larger story of transformation.

Angie: That’s exciting and is such an encouragement. Locally, we have been similarly focused on how to engage more people in new and deeper ways. Currently we facilitate three multi-year, multi-sectoral #HackPoverty working groups, pairing people with lived experience of poverty with Toronto sector leaders in the areas of housing, income, and community supports. These volunteers are envisioning actionable, realistic ideas that will bring much-needed systemic change. We’ve also been working with local churches to support their community-building efforts, and several of them are using our new Church Engagement Toolkit to develop more in-depth plans to build their capacity to serve their neighbours.

Allison: What if every one of those actions was part of a larger story? With Canadian donations, 1.8 million people receive food assistance every month through Canada’s partnership with the World Food Programme—more than the population of Montreal. That’s the scale of what’s possible when we work together to drive change.

Angie: I agree. Together we are building networks to address poverty from many angles of expertise and capacity – working collaboratively under the direction of people with lived experience of poverty. Everyone has a role, and organizations like World Vision Canada and Yonge Street Mission can help you imagine how you can join this mission with us. Locally and internationally, the heart of our mission is the same—a love for our neighbour in obedience to Jesus’ call. 

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We don’t have to choose between caring for vulnerable people at home or abroad. In fact, we can’t. Poverty is not confined by borders, and neither is our calling to respond. Some of us may only be able to support one cause financially, but that doesn’t mean we’re limited in impact. We can advocate for policy change that protects vulnerable people globally. We can amplify the voices of those experiencing poverty locally. We can carve out time from our hectic schedules to serve others. We can speak to our congregations, write to our MPs, and challenge systems that perpetuate inequality.

The truth is that generosity is not just about giving, it’s about showing up. When we show up with purpose, we become part of a movement that restores dignity, opportunity and hope. Let’s not be overwhelmed by the scale of the challenge. Let’s be galvanized by the clarity of our calling. Together we can go and do likewise, trusting that God sees the full staircase, even when we only see the next step. 

So what can you do? 

Read Kentro Christian Network’s article titled “How do you mobilize faith to tackle poverty locally and globally?” for practical suggestions!