Welcome

Urban Outreach Ministries in the City of Winnipeg, Manitoba

Winnipeg is a great city located at the geographic centre of North America situated at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers. It is the capital city of the beautiful province of Manitoba, Canada with a population of just over 650,000. Winnipeg is known as the city of festivals, which occur throughout the year, especially during the summer months.

Manitoba has, unfortunately, a dark side as well. The Manitoba Child and Poverty Report Card for 2006 states that in 2006 almost 21% of Manitoba's children (47,000) lived in poverty. Those children were living in families with incomes below the low income cut-off (LICO). This does not include children living on reserves. The Report Card notes that Manitoba continues to have one of the highest child poverty rates in Canada, a position it has consistently held since 1989. (to read report cards of other provinces please check http://www.campaign2000.ca/rc/prov.html)

For example, the income of a lone mother with 2 children working 40 hrs a week at minimum wage is less than 50% of Statistics Canada Low Income Cut-Off (LICO). In real dollars, she earns just $15,000 a year but requires $31,000 to meet basic family needs and remain above the poverty line. The majority of those families are located in Winnipeg. The wellknown charitable organization "Winnipeg Harvest" has a page with info of poverty by family type. Click here to visit the page.

Winnipeg is a growing city with many success stories. However, it would be hard for Winnipeg to argue that urban growth has been positive for all residents or all parts of the city. Growth creates a number of pressure points, as social networks and safety nets struggle to keep up with the influx of people.

While Winnipeg grows and its economy expand, there are many people who succeed and thrive—but there are also many people who face considerable struggles in their efforts to achieve and maintain a reasonable quality of life. Those least fortunate among us often end up dealing with these struggles in the streets of Winnipeg's downtown core neighbourhoods. Many of those are homeless, addicted to alcohol and drugs or end up in prostitution or street gangs.

Winnipeg, Manitoba is also the home of Urban Outreach Ministries, a Christian Ministry with a call to reach out without prejudice to the urban population of Manitoba. If you are interested to know more about UOM pls feel free to browse thru our small website. Please note that we are still in the process of building our website, with other words this site is still "Under Construction".

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Urban Outreach Ministries, Inc.