The Canadian Centre for Safer Communities (CCFSC) and Headway Steinbach presented at Steinbach's Strategic Priorities Committee (SPC) meeting Tuesday evening.
Manitoba Justice recently launched a pilot project to support 11 municipalities and Indigenous communities across Manitoba in the development and implementation of Community Safety and Well-Being (CSWB) plans.
The presenters asked Steinbach to participate as one of the 11 communities, to which they will give their answer at a later date.
CCFSC has been hired as a consultant for the two-year project to support participating communities through this process, and each community will assist in creating a plan structured around their specific needs.
Community Safety and Well-Being planning includes data collection and review, identifying local priorities, and developing and implementing an action plan. It also includes establishing a Project Working Group and a Steering Committee to take charge of these tasks.
CCFSC says that the Project Working Group will be a committee of two to five people tasked with driving the CSWB planning process on behalf of participating communities, and is often directed by the municipal council, in this case, this would be Steinbach City Council.
They also explain that the Steering Committee will be a group of representatives from various sectors that come together to provide strategic guidance and help execute the plan.
Brenda Brown, Program Coordinator for Headway Steinbach, urges Steinbach City Council to fully engage in and support this initiative.
“As service providers and first responders, we are often faced with critical incidents and emerging issues, which means it can be difficult to put time aside to plan for longer-term solutions to common struggles.”
While communities develop their Community Safety and Well-Being plans, they will focus on four key areas. These are emergency response, risk intervention, prevention, and social development.
CCFSC says people who victimize others have often experienced victimization, trauma, or neglect themselves, so it makes sense to address social inequities that lead to crime as a means of prevention.
Most crime prevention and Community Safety and Well-Being plans attempt to address root causes and risk factors to prevent harm from occurring in the first place.
CCFSC says decision-makers in municipalities can use crime prevention approaches to reduce violent crime significantly, however, they must make investments to implement proven prevention solutions.
They add that a comprehensive approach to crime prevention and CSWB should include various types of efforts and programs.
One way is to attempt to prevent an issue from occurring in the first place by addressing social factors affecting the general population, such as unemployment.
Another way to prevent crime is aiming to prevent those who are at a higher risk of engaging in crime from breaking the law. CCFSC says one way this can be done is through programs such as early intervention programs for youth in low-income households.
CSWB also includes seeking to prevent people who have already committed crimes from re-offending through criminal justice system responses or community-based sanctions.
CCFSC says that with a good CSWB plan, communities can have outcomes like improved opportunities for healthy child development, improved feelings of safety within the community, reduced reliance on incident response, and increased access to services for community members and vulnerable groups.
Brown says a key aspect of this work will be ongoing support from the City.
“Given that the priorities identified in the CSWB planning process, along with actions to address them, have implications for everyone in Steinbach, it is important that the City serves as a champion for these efforts to ensure municipal and community efforts are aligned.”
Steinbach City Council will discuss this topic further at a later date.