(Central Alberta Crime Prevention Centre)

By Ian Gustafson

Loss of funding

Central Alberta Crime Prevention Centre may have to cease operations

Jul 3, 2025 | 4:36 PM

The Central Alberta Crime Prevention Centre may have to close it’s doors due to a loss of funding.

For over a decade, the City of Red Deer had been providing the centre with operational funding but according to the centre, they will no longer receive it. In addition, officials say they also didn’t get the federal Canada summer jobs grant they usually receive.

This has led the Crime Prevention Centre to operate with less staff and decreased operational hours, which has prevented them from providing the same programs and services, officials point out.

The non-profit organization has been a staple in central Alberta since 2012 and has been dedicated to crime prevention, education, and assisting residents impacted by crime.

“We need community support now more than ever,” said Denise Rambow, program and services coordinator at the Central Alberta Crime Prevention Centre. “I think it would be very sad for the centre to close after all these years of being around Red Deer. We’d love to be able to be back out in the community more and do what we’ve been doing.”

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Bobby-Jo Stannard with the City of Red Deer said back in 2020 Red Deer city council requested administration come up with a new community development grant policy that would help provide some alignment in terms of application and evaluation for any grants that were provided by the municipality through tax payers dollars.

In 2021, the new grant policy was approved by council and within that policy there is opportunity for organizations to apply for funding that is project based. Within those projects, there is opportunity for organizations to request funding for some operational expenses as long as they relate to that particular project.

“That’s the process we go through… A proposal needs to fit within the funding guidelines and themes as well as the streams available and the application guidelines from the municipality,” Stannard said. “Previously, we have organizations there were funded to operate but there was not a collaborated process for application or what that looked like. It more came through council budget requests rather than a policy.”

Stannard explained the Crime Prevention Centre is currently receiving funding through a grant from the city of Red Deer that is available to businesses that experience vandalism and are able to provide an RCMP report.

To raise money the Crime Prevention Centre will hold a garage sale at the centre located at #1 – 4311 49 Ave. every Thursday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

They’re looking for donations of household items and clothing, which will be accepted at the centre on Monday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday and Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and on Thursday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

More specifically, they’ll accept clothing, small furniture items, home decor, books, toys, games, kitchen dishes, and more. However, they won’t accept heavy or large items that require more than one person to carry such as mattresses and large appliances.

All money raised will go to help fund the Crime Prevention Centre which also benefits their crime prevention hub partners that work from the Centre including Crime Stoppers, MADD, Neighbourhood Watch, Citizens On Patrol and the Rural Red Deer Restorative Justice program.

If things don’t turn around financially for the centre, officials say they could shut down operations by the end of the year.

“We’re hoping that’s something we won’t have to do by the end of the year,” Rambow added. “We have three major fundraisers that we do all year including the garage sale, touch a truck, and the charity check stop. Those are really important to us so we’re hoping the garage sale could potentially be one we could have longer than the summer if we had the support of the people coming into shop and donate as a way to support us.”