This Profile of Effective Practice is one of fifteen stories examining how innovative, community-based initiatives are using comprehensive approaches to improve social and economic conditions on a local level.

In the heart of Saskatoon, on the east side of the Saskatchewan River, are five neighbourhoods that make up the city's Core area, an area marked by higher rates of poverty than is seen in any other part of Saskatoon.

In 2003 the average family income in Saskatoon was $62,451, yet only $32,475 in the Core Neighbourhoods. Only 16% of Saskatoon families had annual incomes of under $20,000 while nearly 41% of Core Neighbourhood families were below this line. The City of Saskatoon's "Neighbourhood Profiles of Aboriginal Populations" in 1999 notes that 73.5% of Aboriginal families in the Core Neighbourhoods had incomes under $20,000.