VICTOR WILLIS

Executive director of the Parkdale Activity-Recreation Centre (PARC)

What is a common misconception about poverty that you come across?

That people in these situations aren’t resilient — the fact is people who are poor often lack access to resources. It’s not that they are any less capable, in fact they are remarkably resourceful because they’ve survived poverty. Let’s actually look at that as a strength and then let’s look at how to unlock opportunity.

What is your ‘big idea’ in the fight against poverty in the GTA?

That agencies such as PARC provide people in a community with knowledge and some transfer, so in turn they are then able to participate in design and engage in the kind of neighbourhood that they want and the kind of future that they want. This makes the agencies the facilitators — so that we’re not telling people what’s good for them — they know what they need.

What inspires your work?

What’s important about why I do this — and I’ve done it for 30 years — is that it’s personal. I have family members who struggle with precarity of housing and the hope to hold onto employment. I want to see these things solved so that my family and perhaps their family’s families will have the kinds of opportunities that I didn’t and that my parents didn’t.