Allan and Lynn Smith-Reeve and have been working in the orbit of poverty for many years. In Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, the city in which Axiom News hosted the Peterborough Dialogues, 40 or more tents have been put up in Victoria Park and in which people who are living in poverty are now residing.

With poverty, which is usually tucked away and hidden being brought to the community’s attention in a high profile way, Allan published and circulated two pieces exploring how wealth isolates and how poverty is not the problem.

Taken with the questions Allan posed to ‘turn things on their heads’ Peter Pula accepted Allan’s invitation to expand the conversation.

In this podcast the failure of our systems to address poverty in a meaningful way was responded to by way of looking to what citizens and community members can do, and are doing, to not only redistribute wealth without waiting for a large system to respond, but even how we might learn from people who are under-resourced. How can we view wealth, economy, and life itself in entirely new ways?

Allan and Lynn are the stewards of Bedford House and Bridges Out of Poverty. Their experience is grounded in reality and offers up heartfelt wisdom.

Originally recorded for our sister-site in Peterborough, ElectricCityMagazine.ca, this podcast appears here because it tells a story relevant to many communities and weaves some imaginative possibilities.