A New Season for EndPovertyEdmonton
It’s a season of change for our city. Since the pandemic, the city’s Human Services sector has been tasked with addressing challenges that may feel familiar on the surface, but that are fueled by whole new levels of need. A rising population and stagnant funding means having to do more with less. Instability in the United States is changing the political landscape across the country and around the world. And on the eve of a municipal election, in which a new Edmonton Mayor and City Council will be elected, shifting local priorities are inevitable as well.
At EndPovertyEdmonton, we’re similarly in a period of change. After taking some time to reflect, to listen to the community, and to assess our next steps, we are relaunching EndPovertyEdmonton with fresh energy and a clarity of purpose: to end poverty in a generation by transforming the systems that sustain it. We have taken to heart your thoughts about the work we’ve done together, and the work we have left to do. Thanks to the wisdom and experience that you shared with us, we now have a new vision, a new leader, and a new approach to our shared work.
Introducing Our Managing Director
Originally from Kamloops, BC, Jen Casorso comes to EPE after 20 years of collaborative work across many sectors. She’s worked with municipalities, Indigenous communities, nonprofit leaders, frontline organizations, and lived experience advocates to catalyze social change. She’s led multi-year policy and engagement projects focused on housing, poverty, and social wellbeing — all experiences that place her so well to steward the next incarnation of EPE.
With her warm and compassionate approach to community-building, she brings a leadership approach that values co-creation, building trust over time, and listening. “I don’t see leadership as directing from the front,” she says. “I see it as walking alongside — supporting communities, partners, and those with lived and living experience to shape the systems that impact them every day. The work we will do at EndPovertyEdmonton is not mine. It’s ours — a shared effort to reimagine what’s possible.”
What IS Possible
Possibility — and impossibility — are important words for us. Critics may claim that it’s impossible to end poverty, and that all we can do is try to stem the tide of despair.
But we don’t believe in the inevitability of poverty. Instead we’re turning the idea of impossibility on its head, and are envisioning a future where poverty is the impossibility. What might a society look like where there is enough for everyone, where opportunities flourish, doors open, and financial and social wellbeing are the reality for everyone? That’s the future we want, need, to live in. So it’s up to us, and everyone who’s with us, to closely examine that possible future, to co-create the systems that serve it, and dismantle the systems that don’t.
We recognize that EPE is not a service provider. We are movement stewards. And we are here to help rebuild the movement to end poverty with the community at the centre; where we can all contribute to the vision of a city where poverty is an impossibility, and where everyone can thrive.
Our Next Steps
Since stepping into her new role, Jen has been in deep conversation with people across the nonprofit sector — listening to their experiences, hopes, and frustrations. A clear message is emerging: while many are doing important work to address poverty, we remain limited by fragmented systems, scarcity-driven mindsets, and competition for resources. Too often, funding structures, institutional silos, and urgent workloads constrain our ability to work together in meaningful, lasting ways.
This scarcity isn’t just financial — it’s relational. It isolates sectors from one another and keeps people, ideas, and solutions from circulating. It makes collaboration a struggle rather than a shared opportunity.
EPE’s role in this next chapter is to help change that. We are here to grow the connective tissue that links across sectors and communities — between non-profits, governments, Indigenous partners, businesses, and everyday citizens. This work isn’t just about transforming the human services sector; it’s about fostering the relationships, spaces, and practices that allow an entire city to mobilize around making poverty impossible.
That means working in right relationship, honouring place and community, and operating in ways that are adaptive, innovative, and participatory. It means viewing wealth holistically — as care, knowledge, land, labour, time, and trust — and supporting its circulation so that wellbeing becomes something everyone can access, contribute to, and sustain.
EPE’s updated Theory of Change is our guide in this effort. It focuses on the following:
- Amplifying lived experience and public voice
Reframing narratives and embedding feedback loops rooted in lived wisdom.
- Mobilizing collective influence
Connecting people, efforts, and organizations to build alignment and momentum.
- Creating affirming spaces for collaboration
Hosting intentional, healing, and transparent spaces to restore trust and spark action.
- Co-creating systemic solutions
Advancing policies, investments, and practices that redistribute resources and power.
We know this work is already alive in Edmonton. Our role is to amplify it, connect it, and support its evolution. Together, we can co-create a future where wellbeing is not just possible — it becomes the only future we can imagine.
To connect with the new EPE, please reach out to Jen Casorso at info@endpovertyedmonton.ca
