COQUITLAM, B.C., Jan. 30, 2023 – The City of Coquitlam has developed a three-year strategy addressing youth gun and gang violence in the community with funding support from the federal government.
The federal Building Safer Communities Fund supports municipalities and Indigenous communities in efforts to prevent gun and gang violence by tackling its root causes.
Through this funding, the City has conducted research and collaborated with local community groups to create a strategy to tackle violence in the community and provide support to vulnerable youth who are involved in or at risk of joining gangs.
Strategy Focuses on Increasing Support for Impacted Youth
The goal of the three-year strategy is to increase supports for high-risk vulnerable youth through a two-pronged approach focusing on both prevention and intervention.
Through community partners and those who specialize in working with vulnerable youth, prevention efforts will include providing education resources and workshops to the community, and expanding prevention-based afterschool programming and mentorship.
Intervention will focus on better supporting existing high-risk vulnerable youth, in part by providing SHARE Society with funding to hire a youth outreach worker who will connect youth to community service providers and school-based initiatives.
The City will also lead the establishment of a Child & Family At-Risk Support Table (CFAST) for high-risk vulnerable youth and their families. The risk-based rapid-triage model will bring together the School District 43, front-line support agencies and justice professionals on a bi-weekly basis to address youth who are presenting indications of being at a high risk. Once the best-suited organizations to support are determined, they will immediately provide their services to vulnerable at-risk youth and their families.
Key Areas of Concern Identified
Extensive research was conducted into gun and gang violence in consultation with community groups and local organizations in order to develop the strategy, including Safer Schools Together (SST), which specializes in youth violence prevention and intervention.
Through this consultation, the City identified key areas of concern for high-risk and vulnerable youth, including:
- Considerable fragmentation across support organization programs that has created an uncoordinated response to high-risk youth and vulnerable youth.
- An absence of early intervention and prevention initiatives that target middle-school aged youth that is contributing to youth involvement in high-risk or problematic behaviours.
- Significant barriers, including language and cultural nuances, to accessing existing services, such as mental-health care and counselling services.
- Lack of evaluative frameworks across multiple support organizations makes it unclear which programs are effectively supporting high-risk youth and vulnerable youth.
By filling the gaps in service and increasing supports for high-risk vulnerable youth in Coquitlam, the program aims to boost school attendance and achievement while reducing negative police contacts, as well as threats and weapons in the community.
Building Safer Communities Fund
The Building Safer Communities Fund (BSCF) supports municipalities and Indigenous communities in efforts to prevent gun and gang violence. The grant funding intends to address the conditions that contribute to youth falling in with crime and is available to support local organizations that focus on children, youth and young adults who are involved in, or at risk of, joining gangs.
Media contact:
Lindsey Grist
Business Services Manager
604-927-3036
lgrist@coquitlam.ca