Lorraine Goddard, CEO of United Way Windsor-Essex County (Photo by Mark Brown/Blackburn News)Lorraine Goddard, CEO of United Way Windsor-Essex County (Photo by Mark Brown/Blackburn News)
Windsor

United Way Analyzing Census Trends

Trend changes in Windsor-Essex's population are prompting United Way Windsor-Essex County to focus its efforts.

The government of Canada released its latest census data Wednesday, showing that there are more couples who are not having children, there are more young people who are living at home with their parents, and more single-parent families living in the region.

Armed with this information, United Way Windsor-Essex County CEO Lorraine Goddard says they have an idea on where to concentrate their efforts over the next few years. The most prominent involves the number of sole-parent households led by women. While crunching the census numbers, Goddard says the United Way staff noticed that 34% of these families are living in the United Way's "priority neighbourhoods."

"They would be moving to these neighbourhoods because there's probably more available rental units, probably more affordable rents, and they'd also be able to access transportation and other services," says Goddard.

A priority neighbourhood, according to Goddard, is defined as an area where there is a significant amount of people living with low income or educational attainment, along with higher levels of crime and other factors. 18 of these neighbourhoods have been identified using this criteria.

Goddard says one of their strategies is to pool services and programs, since there is no one-size-fits-all solution that applies to these areas.

Census data shows Windsor-Essex ranks fourth in the province when it comes to people aged 20 to 34 who are still living at homes with their parents, after Toronto, Hamilton and Oshawa. While unemployment among young people has been an issue in Windsor-Essex for years and with the understanding that housing costs in Windsor are significantly lower than Toronto, Goddard says there a few other factors involved.

"We do know that there are high student debt loads," says Goddard. "We do know there is precarious work for young people and just generally a lack of opportunities."

Goddard says the United Way is also trying to identify future trends in employment, based on data showing that the Windsor-Essex population is getting older and fewer millennials are getting married or having children.

"When we think to the future in terms of our workforce," says Goddard, "we really have to think about who are going to be here to take the jobs that are going to be available."

Statistics Canada released census information based on languages spoken at home and how the makeup of families has been trending.

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