Period Poverty Task Force
On May 27, 2022, the Government of BC provided $750,000 in grant funding to United Way BC to support the establishment of a multi-sector Period Poverty Task Force. The members of the task force, appointed by government, will be meeting regularly over a period of 18 months. By March 2024, they will propose sustainable approaches to period poverty in B.C. by submitting a final report for the Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction with short, medium, and long-term recommendations to achieve the long-term goal of ending period poverty. United Way BC will provide secretariat support to complete this work.
Because of the people who are sitting at the table, our work with this Task Force is particularly exciting. When considering who to appoint the Government of BC and Nikki Hill, Task Force Chair, considered geographical location, people with knowledge of the period poverty and menstrual equity movement, and people with a wide variety of lived experiences. We prioritized including people from the Indigenous community, people living with disabilities, and people with diverse genders.
The members of the Task Force are:
- Nikki Hill, Chair
- A.J. Lowik
- Jackie Jack
- Kate Fish
- Lori-Ann Armstrong
- Tiffany Ottahal
- Zeba Khan
The Task Force will be supported by four reference groups that will begin meeting in the Spring of 2023. These groups will help diversify input into the Task Force’s report to the Government of BC. They will consist of businesses, community-based organizations, BC-based menstrual equity advocates, and people with lived experience of period poverty.
In addition to supporting the costs of administering the Period Poverty Task Force, the grant to United Way BC will support trialing innovative pilot projects for the distribution of free menstrual products into community through a Pilot Project Fund. These funded models will explore public policy approaches that could be adopted by the Government of BC, partners, and other sectors to support people living in BC with limited access to menstrual products. Members of the Task Force will review applications and final reports from the pilots will inform their recommendations to Government.
The total investment into research pilots will be no less than $220,000. Applications can range in budget from $10,000 to $25,000.
Applications for the fund are open from October 7th to November 4th. For more information or to view to Request for Proposals and consider making an application, click here.
If you have any questions, please reach out to us at PeriodPovertyTaskForce@uwbc.ca.
