Home Newsroom 2005 News releases (archive) 2005-01-18: Crime prevention funding Backgrounder: Building Safer Communities

Building Safer Communities

Safe and peaceful communities are highly valued by Canadians. The National Crime Prevention Strategy is part of the Government of Canada’s framework to help enhance the safety and security of Canadians in their homes and communities.

The National Strategy links the best of local, national, and international knowledge about “what works” to prevent crime and victimization with people and organizations who are ready to put this knowledge into action. It does this by developing and sharing knowledge on effective approaches to building safer communities, and by providing funding support to help communities apply, test and evaluate promising practices in crime prevention through social development.

The social and economic factors that underlie crime and victimization are often interconnected, with roots that span generations. Circumstances that affect parents tend to have an impact on their children, and problems that young people experience also affect their families. The National Crime Prevention Strategy helps to create awareness among individuals, families, communities and society as a whole of the consequences of deep-rooted things like family violence, impact of residential schools, poverty and addictions.

The National Strategy is an investment in a social development approach to building safer, healthier communities. It helps Canadians to address the social and economic factors that can lead some individuals to become offenders, or victims of crime. At the same time, the National Strategy supports communities in identifying their strengths, and building on the positive, protective factors that exist in individuals, families and organizations.

Partnerships in Action

The goals of the National Crime Preventions Strategy are being achieved with the active participation and assistance of partners in the non-governmental, volunteer and business communities. By working in partnership, thousands of Canadians are undertaking a range of activities to involve others in understanding and addressing the root causes of crime, and developing comprehensive, sustainable, locally relevant approaches to enhance safety and security.

Twenty-one Prince Edward Island projects, and another two with Atlantic reach, have recently received $679,637 through the National Crime Prevention Strategy. Connecting people and strengthening communities is fundamental to crime prevention through social development, and is at the heart of these initiatives. Examples of some projects supported under the Strategy are:

The Évangéline Community Consultative Group (ÉCCG) has received $30,260 for its latest project, La prévention, c'est moi...c'est toi...c'est nous...pour le bien-être de tous et de toutes...(Prevention, its me…its you…its us…for the well being of Everyone… ). Since 1999, this community has been using a social development approach to actively engage community members and organizations in reducing crime and victimization. The ÉCCG acts as a catalyst and support for the implementation of a locally-developed community safety action plan. The current phase of activity takes a comprehensive approach to community development, with a full range of activities to involve all age groups. From developing tools and resources, to using these resources in training and awareness sessions, to supporting school based initiatives on conflict resolution and bullying, this community action project is designed to involve the whole community in making this francophone part of the Island a safer and healthier place for everyone. (902) 854-3095

Aboriginal people make up approximately 2% of Prince Edward Island’s population; however incarceration and remand rates for Aboriginal people are proportionately much higher than those for non-Aboriginals. Working in partnership with the Atlantic Aboriginal Health Research Program, a Charlottetown-based organization called Aboriginal Survivors for Healing (ASH) Inc. is taking a closer look at these statistics to determine if and how the experience of being an Indian Residential Schools survivor or descendant puts these individuals at a further increased risk of coming into conflict with the law, as compared to the broader Aboriginal community on PEI. In addition to developing a statistical picture of relationships between risk factors and incarceration rates, the project, To Heal Ourselves, will also identify culturally appropriate interventions to reduce risk factors and to increase protective factors for survivors and descendants. By understanding the present consequences of past experiences, this work will help survivors and descendants to heal and strengthen their ability to create brighter futures. ASH has received $9,700 to support this work. (902) 368-8498

Among academics and professionals, it is generally accepted as fact that witnessing violence in the home can put children at risk of repeating the cycle of family violence by becoming abusive themselves, or by accepting abuse from others. Communities Preventing Violence - a coalition of community groups, individuals, professional groups, police agencies, and government departments - is developing an action plan to ensure that this becomes common knowledge. They have received $20 000 to support Building Community Capacity to Address the Effects of Violence on Children Exposed to Violence in their Homes. Initial efforts to increase awareness of this general issue will be subsequently supported by outreach activities to promote a deeper understanding of the lesser-known links between animal abuse and family violence. Threats or actual harm to animals is often one of the ways that perpetrators of family violence try to control their spouse or child, while children who witness family violence often mimic the violence they witness by taking it out on animals, as well as peers or siblings. By linking various pieces of knowledge on how to recognize and break patterns of abuse, this work is creating a more comprehensive approach to violence and abuse prevention. (902) 894-3354

Well aware of the challenges facing families, a group of mothers in Lennox Island First Nations community, with the support of the Lennox Island Health Centre, set out to engage their whole community in strengthening family and community ties. Over many years, and for a variety of reasons, many people in this small First Nations community had lost touch with the strength and support that could be found in their families, their culture, and their community. This group of mothers wanted their own young children to grow up with positive connections to mothers, fathers, siblings and elders, and they believed it could be done. Their project, Mawiomi: Gathering Together, mobilized a Parent Leader Team, who took on the challenge of organizing weekly sports and cultural events. By creating opportunities to gather, learn and celebrate, they encouraged family relationship-building through fun and spiritual development. Local and provincial resource people shared knowledge and skills in conflict resolution, early child learning, Mi’kmaq culture, prevention of abuse and group processes so that the Parent Leaders were well-equipped to meet their challenges. A booklet describing the life cycle of the project was written and shared with the community and other partners, such as the Mi’kmaq Family Resource Centre in Charlottetown. The Lennox Island Health Centre has received $11,000 to support this work. (902) 831-2711