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By Alessia Proietti

Building Safer Communities Fund

Red Deer eligible for funding to prevent and intervene youth gun and gang violence

Sep 13, 2022 | 11:14 AM

Red Deer is eligible to receive roughly $2.1 million from the federal Building Safer Communities Fund to prevent and intervene youth entering gun and gang violence over the next four years.

City council approved at Monday’s meeting a budget amendment for the 2022-2026 Operating Budgets to receive and spend the additional grant dollars.

According to the federal government, eligible recipients can utilize the funds to develop local and community-based strategies and initiatives, to build capacity to better understand the nature, scope and impacts of the types of initiatives implemented, to enhance evidence-based and targeted activities, advance knowledge and evidence of what works, and develop a data collection strategy and system.

The City says they were notified by Public Safety Canada that they were eligible for immediate funding in April 2022. Ryan Veldkamp, Red Deer’s Housing & Homelessness Supports Supervisor, said 120 municipalities are eligible based on their firearms and gang related crime statistics. The amount of funds allocated to each municipality, he said, was based on a formula including a population adjustment and a severity top-up based on three proxies: homicide by firearm, incidents of firearm offences and organized crime and street gang violence involving crime.

Councillors like Bruce Buruma and Victor Doerksen questioned the statistics of gun and gang violence among youth in the city. Red Deer RCMP Superintendent Holly Glassford confirmed there are currently no related trends among youth.

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However, Councillor Vesna Higham, said emphasis in Red Deer should be placed more on prevention.

“While we may not have a huge gun and gang violence problem or issue within our community compared to some, say Surrey B.C., but we certainly do have issues related to drugs and drug addiction and the crime and negative impacts that emanate from,” she said. “Preventing those from escalating into gun and gang violence based on what we do have, I think we can make a very strong case.”

Kristin Walsh, the City’s Safe & Healthy Communities Department Manager, said the funds will be used to address the social determinants of crime, such as poor housing, limited access to education and jobs, and appropriate intervention for at-risk youth.

The Department says they have been working on a draft plan for year-one, which will focus on helping to determine local priorities and program targets led by local data and expertise.

Once approved by Public Safety Canada, the City says they will then create a plan for the remaining three years of the funding.

A draft of the year-one plan is as follows:

1. Secure external consultants to support all project activity in year one, including:

• Internal work team to develop year one of the plan
• Collect data: RCMP, local gun and gang themes, high risk youth involved occurrences, trends, emerging issues
• Conduct focused community consultations with known youth-based organizations, specifically high-risk youth, to gather information on gaps in service, strengths in working collaboratives, and prominent risk and protective factors to be addressed
• Work with the Systems Leadership Team (SLT) to provide oversight for year-one’s work, including the development of local and community–based strategies, program targets, and initiatives, consistent with the Community Safety Strategy.
  • The SLT includes: City of Red Deer administration, Red Deer RCMP, Urban Aboriginal Voices Society, Red Deer Regional Catholic Schools, Red Deer Public Schools, Alberta Justice Red Deer, Ministry of Justice and Solicitor General, Red Deer Polytechnic, Central Region Ministry of Children’s Services, Alberta Health Services Central Zone, and Alberta Works Red Deer.
• Develop and set target goals for the 3-year gun and gang prevention/intervention strategy with internal and external partners and submit to Public Safety Canada for approval.

2. Select agencies to carry out the activities and strategies

The $2,131,176.11 is scheduled to be allocated as follows:

• Year one (April 1, 2022 – March 31, 2023): $213,217.61
• Year two (April 1, 2023 – March 31, 2024): $746,261.64
• Year three (April 1, 2024 – March 31, 2025): $746,261.64
• Year four (April 1, 2025 – March 31, 2026): $426,435.22