Council approves federal grant to address gun and gang violence
By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on July 27, 2023.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com
Lethbridge city council Tuesday unanimously approved new federal funding to develop prevention and intervention strategies to address gun and gang activities here.
The City has secured limited funding from the Building Safer Communities Fund of Public Safety Canada.
Council was asked to accept funding of $665,618.10 in the fiscal year 2023-24 ending March 31 of next year to complete work contained in an approved one-year work plan to address and respond to gun and gang activities.
The objective of the fund, says a presentation made at council chambers by Community Social Development General Manager Andrew Malcolm and CSD Operations Manager Takara Motz, is “to support municipalities in their efforts to address gun and gang prevalence by providing a determined funding allocation to put in place community-led projects to combat gun and gang violence and address knowledge gaps concerning the impacts of interventions in gun and gang violence.”
Staffing for administration of the funds, council heard in a powerpoint presentation, is provided by the administrative portion of provincial and federal grant agreements, council heard.
Approved activities in the first year include hiring a term project lead position in Community Social Development and procuring a consultant to do research into gun and gang themes, the types of violence occurring, gaps in services, trends, stats and emerging issues impacting the city.
The City must develop and submit by March 2024 a comprehensive two-year prevention/intervention plan to secure further contribution agreements for the remaining $1,045,971.30 available to the City.
Such a plan will include initiatives “that address risk factors associated with youth at risk of gun and gang violence, including but not limited to: mentoring, counselling, skills development and recreational opportunities; outreach and recruitment of preventative initiatives or intervention participants; public awareness and education; and development or enhancement of data systems to support data gathering/reporting on gun and gang crime or on results achieved,” said the presentation.
Several outcomes are expected from funding. In the short term that includes to research and build a base understanding and develop prevention and intervention initiatives to address and respond to gun and gang violence, said the presentation.
A medium term outcome is to “implement informed prevention and intervention initiatives to respond to gun and gang violence.”
The long-term outcome is to “Equip with sustainable intervention and prevention initiatives to address gun and gang violence.”
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14-13
Another step in the right direction of the marathon ahead to end this!
Downtown has seen an increase in gang activity in the last 6 months. We need our police force brought up to national manned standards and I hope council gets the message now people of finally started expressing their concerns! We have a chance of ending the carnage on our streets which I now call the killing fields.
Sad when you see a group hang out for hours but when one of them overdose, they scatter, taking the persons personal possessions to rifle through for drugs/cash, even going through their pockets . . . I have witnessed this many times and they don’t call 911. Only in rare cases do I see someone step up and administer Narcan/Naloxone and begin CPR.
These are not the truly homeless, but gangs who often have had clashes downtown in several areas, 3 of which were witnessed by myself.
There is a difference between the truly homeless and these criminals that hang out all on the streets committing crimes and damaging property. They will not obey rules that would house them and live on the streets because it is their area of operations. It is where they make their money and no program will help them, except law enforcement and the courts.