Charity isn't always charitable, according to new Research Chair

Tracy Smith-Carrier, a blonde woman with a big smile, stands outside with blurry green trees in the background.

The charitable model used to address poverty is ineffective and needs to be replaced with one of social justice and human rights, says a newly appointed Canada Research Chair from Royal Roads University.

“We're socialized to believe that giving is a good thing. It's a venerable practice to engage in charitable giving,” says Tracy Smith-Carrier, a new Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

But clearly, she adds, it hasn't worked.

The UN warns of a global recession far worse than the one from 2007 to 2009. Meanwhile, a research paper, published last year, estimates that the COVID-19 economic shutdown will push 420 to 580 million people into poverty, causing the global rate to rise for the first time since 1990.

In Canada, more than 12 per cent of the population lives under the poverty line, while the number of people experiencing food insecurity continues to rise.

Smith-Carrier joined the School of Humanitarian Studies at Royal Roads in September, becoming the university's sixth Canada Research Chair. Her work will aim to assess, monitor, and measure the relevance, progress, and impacts of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

The research position is for five years and could be extended.

Smith-Carrier moved to Victoria with her family, which includes three daughters, from Ontario after eight years as an associate professor at King's University College, an affiliate College of Western University, in the School of Social Work.

She applied for the research chair a year ago and learned she had been accepted at the end of June.

“It's a fairly rigorous process to get a nomination, so I'm very grateful for everyone at Royal Roads who assisted me through it,” Smith-Carrier says.

"Escaping poverty"

She's excited about the move and new position, but the work isn't new to her, nor is poverty. She grew up as one of two daughters to a single mother.

“I had grown up in poverty as a child.”

Her experiences drove Smith-Carrier to pursue a higher education, to escape poverty, utilizing student loan and grant programs, the latter of which was later discontinued.

Smith-Carrier earned an undergraduate degree in political studies at Queen's University, then a Bachelor of Education from the University of Toronto and taught middle school in Ontario for five years.

She had been pioneering a literacy enrichment and acceleration program for students who didn't have English as a second language or literacy in their language of origin.

“So I was teaching primarily older kids, going back to ABCs, for the Toronto school district for a few years and realized that there were real issues with resources in the schools,” she says.

“There were a lot of issues in my life that actually overlapped with the students related to poverty and food insecurity and social assistance use.”

That prompted her to pursue a Master of Social Work degree from Wilfrid Laurier University.

"People’s lives were affected"

During her practicum, she worked with former member of provincial parliament Ted McMeekin, who years later asked her to write a report about rural poverty and present it to then-premier Kathleen Wynne. The report highlighted the need for a basic income, a recommendation that would see the Ontario basic income pilot launched for all residents of the province in 2017.

But Doug Ford cancelled the pilot after being elected premier.

“So all of the research being collected came to a stop, and all the people who were receiving the basic income, those payments came to an end,” Smith-Carrier says.

“It was awful, people's lives were so negatively affected.”

She was part of the coordinating team for the Ontario Basic Income Network.

"We were hearing of people committing suicide and people losing their homes. People who were supposed to start school and had paid their tuition realized they couldn't go to school anymore because they didn't have the money,” she adds. “So that was heartbreaking.”

Smith-Carrier says political will is key to fulfilling the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, of which only one – the right to safe water and sanitation – has been identified as a human right to be embedded domestically across the UN's 193 member states.

The goals were brought in to replace the Millennium Development Goals in 2015, and redress those that were neglected, such as violence against women and environmental sustainability.

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals will be monitored through 169 targets and 244 indicators, and be met by 2030, with targets of reducing inequalities, ensuring quality education, and ending poverty.

Reducing inequalities

Scandinavian countries have done well to reduce the latter, says Smith-Carrier, who also has a PhD in social work from the University of Toronto, mostly through “cradle to grave” social policies, such as parental leave benefits, affordable child care, free post-secondary education, robust pension programs, and good unionized jobs.

“Denmark, for example, a couple of years ago, its poverty rate was six per cent for the overall population, and I think three per cent for child poverty. Denmark has effectively eradicated poverty.”

Finland, she adds, steered away from standardized testing in schools and has invested in identifying students' natural talents and developing viable pathways to future careers.

“Our students today, by the time they finish university, they're saddled with huge amounts of student debt with no guarantee that they'll get a good job. You can get a university education now and not be any better off, really, unless you go to graduate school.”

As a research chair, Smith-Carrier, will assemble an advisory group and conduct community-based research that looks at applying the goals both locally and globally.

“So we will be looking at how Victoria has been doing in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals and what areas we need to focus on.  After that, we’ll look at evidence-informed policy solutions that might better address the goals globally.”

Smith-Carrier and the advisory team will also look to raise awareness in the community.

“One of the things that we could be doing is busting some of the myths that surround poverty and food insecurity. For example, the over-reliance on the charitable model and the assumption that, 'Oh, we've got charity, therefore everybody's fine,'” she says.

“There's a lot of literature to support the fact that the charitable model doesn't work,” adding it's inefficient and ineffective. Only 20 per cent of people experiencing food insecurity will ever step foot into a food bank. We're talking about a model that has 80 per cent of the people experiencing the issue not ever actually getting assistance through that model.”

Smith-Carrier says the charity model cannot be the solution. It's now her job to find one.

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Canada Research Chairs at Royal Roads

Royal Roads University currently has six Canada Research Chairs. In addition to Dr. Smith-Carrier, the chairs are held by:

Dr. Jaigris Hodson, Digital Communication for the Public Interest

College of Interdisciplinary Studies Assoc. Prof. Jaigris Hodson is a digital technologies researcher and social media consultant who has been studying social media and online information flows for 15 years. Hodson’s research investigates what drives us to trust and share science-related misinformation, including the accidental spread of incomplete media reports, fake news and propaganda designed to deceive.

Dr. Julie MacArthur, Reimagining Capitalism

Julie MacArthur is interested in the redistribution of power—both in terms of access to energy but also in terms of economic and decision-making power. An associate professor in Royal Roads’ School of Business, MacArthur’s research looks at providing a clearer picture of energy democracy in Canada – who’s involved, where it could grow, and how it compares to the rest of the world.

Dr. Ash Prasad, Innovative Organizational Practice

School of Business Assoc. Prof. Ash Prasad, studies the motivations of entrepreneurs who after  immigrating to more economically advantaged areas have then returned to their countries of origin to pursue business ventures. His research explores how these entrepreneurs define success and how they act as change agents in their countries of origin.

Dr. Phillip Vannini, Innovative Learning and Public Ethnography

School of Communication and Culture Prof. Phillip Vannini was appointed Canada research Chair in 2010. Vannini’s ethnographic research explores the lifestyles of people who live off the grid. His ethnographic work, including in documentary film, sheds light on the lives of people who choose to go off the grid and makes his research as easily accessible as popular culture.

Dr. George Veletsianos, Innovative Learning and Technology

School of Education and Technology Prof. George Veletsianos is widely recognized as a foremost expert in digital education. His research aims to improve understanding about the uses and applications of social media in learning and research in Canadian universities by studying students’ and researchers’ experiences and practices with social media.