North York Mirror

To the editor:

It’s disheartening to learn funding for many of the youth programs and infrastructure projects in Toronto’s priority neighbourhoods is running out.

These initiatives provide young people with opportunities to gain valuable skills they can use to pursue job training or a post-secondary education, which will assist them in succeeding in the future.

While these programs are important, they are only the first step and more needs to be done to stem poverty in priority neighbourhoods.

There have been many media reports and academic studies that have documented the difficulties of young people and recent graduates entering the labour market.

This literature shows the situation is considerably more dire for racialized graduates.

The most effective way of eliminating poverty is to tackle its root causes: underemployment, unemployment and lower average pay for marginalized communities. Numerous studies have shown that marginalized communities have lower employment and participation rates and are compensated less for their labour through no fault of their own.

By minimizing labour market inequities, we as a society, can reduce poverty and its associated effects.

Richard Sunichura