“Pretending you forgot lunch” “Being afraid to tell your mother you need sneakers at school” (Network, 2007)Child poverty does not It's something that Ontario talks about a lot, but it's a real problem for millions of children who have to experience it every day. Breaking the Cycle is a provincial program designed to eliminate poverty by 25% in five years for children, their families and the entire community. In this article I will discuss the context of poverty in Ontario and the people who are most likely to be affected by it. Second, I will present a new provincial program called Breaking the Cycle: Ontario's Poverty Reduction Strategy and Desired Goals for the Province of Ontario. Third, I will discuss the results of programs designed to eliminate poverty and the progress made in the province of Ontario. Context of Poverty in Ontario “Ontario has more than 12.1 million residents. Many Ontarians struggle to live on low incomes and are financially insecure as a result. The 2006 census revealed that of the 12 million Ontarians living in private households, 11.1% (about 1.3 million men, women and children) had after-tax incomes at or below to the low income threshold (LICO) established by Statistics Canada ( Statistics Canada, 2008c). More than 318,000 Ontarians use food banks monthly (Ontario Association of Food Banks, 2008, p. 5). In Ontario's Waterloo Region (population 478,121), an estimated 4,832 individuals aged 16 years and older used emergency shelters in 2006; in Hamilton (pop. 504,559), 400 people used emergency shelters on a given night in November 2006 (compared to 160 in a similar survey conducted in 1995); the use of shelters in Toronto (population 2.5...... half of paper ...... to families and helps create a more positive atmosphere for children living in poverty. Since the program has been integrated into society there have been significant and positive changes for society Although Ontarians still have three more years to test the waters and see if the changes actually impact poor families, Ontario is on the way right and perhaps is paving the way for the rest of Canada to follow.References:Cycle, B. t. (2010 Second Annual Breaking the Cycle Report: Ontario's Poverty Reduction Strategy, 2010 Ottawa Report: Government of 'Ontario. Maxwell, G. (2009) Poverty in Ontario: . 34.Network, CP (2007). .cfm