CCBR collaboratively conducted a program review of Mennonite Central Committee Ontario’s Walking with People in Poverty Program. This project synthesized evaluation data collected to date and conducted conversations with staff, partners, and funders to explore MCC Ontario’s current strengths and potential opportunities to better address poverty alleviation needs and service gaps. Recommendations were made for MCC Ontario’s future poverty programming in alignment with both MCCO’s current strategic plan and the Region of Waterloo’s Plan to End Chronic Homelessness.

The project was guided by a steering committee of MCC Ontario staff, volunteers, and program participants. The research began with a document review of MCC Ontario internal planning and evaluation reports, MCC Canada reports, and external documents relating to poverty in Waterloo Region. Next, we conducted interviews with MCC Ontario partners and funders. To collect information from the staff, we held two in-person staff forums. The first was to present preliminary findings of the document review and gather opinions and input on the main research questions. The second was to share research findings, do member checking, and discuss recommendations. The final deliverable was a narrative report, which summarized the findings by main research question.