Good afternoon, my name is Daniel Sansfacon, Acting Executive Director of the National Crime Prevention Centre with Public Safety Canada. I will be sharing the speaking time with my colleague, Ed Buller, who is the Director, Aboriginal Corrections Policy.
I will be basically talking about three things. I will try to go over them fairly quickly, so that we have enough time for discussion together. First, I will talk about the broad direction of the National Crime Prevention Strategy. Second, I will talk about the current situation and third, briefly, I will give you at least one example of a program that we are currently funding.
The objective of the National Crime Prevention Strategy is mainly to reduce offending behaviour as much as possible. We feel that well-thought-out and properly implemented prevention measures are the best way to reduce the number of victims. At the same time, we are obviously aware that this is a long-term process, and the effects will only be felt several years later, after the projects have been carried out, especially since our targeted groups are youth aged 6 to 24. I will talk about this in more detail later.
The strategy uses three mechanisms in particular to finance prevention actions in the field, across the country. The more general mechanism is the Crime Prevention Action Fund, which is approximately $37 million for the year 2010-2011. This is the principal fund in the sense that we use it to try to fund initiatives that are largely based on the knowledge of what “works to reduce crime.”
The second mechanism, created specifically at the recent renewal of the strategy in 2008, is the Northern and Aboriginal Crime Prevention Fund. As the title indicates, the objective is precisely to help the Aboriginal communities to implement prevention actions that are focused, but also adapted to their realities and their circumstances. This fund amounts to $8 million for 2010-2011.
Finally, even if it is less relevant at the moment, there is the Youth Gang Prevention Fund. This fund is limited, ending on March 31, 2011; it has $6 million available for 2010-2011.
As I told you earlier, the strategy's main priorities are to prevent offending behaviour—especially in youth aged 6-24, since that is when the main delinquent tendencies are seen—among the Aboriginal people and Northern communities, and to prevent the recidivism of former offenders who have completed their sentence.
NCPC funds interventions that focus on high-risk children and youth who present multiple risk factors for later delinquency. These risk factors include things such as having been exposed to or indeed having been a victim of family violence, for example. NCPC also funds interventions aimed at preventing re-offending among high-risk chronic offenders in communities, including those who have a known history of spousal or child abuse.
My colleagues mentioned this earlier. Through census data and other data, it's well known that many aboriginal people are exposed to greater risks for crime and victimization than non-aboriginal people would be. One of NCPC's priorities includes supporting culturally sensitive initiatives that will foster the development and implementation of crime prevention approaches in aboriginal communities, both on reserve and off reserve, and build the knowledge and capacity required to develop and adapt effective ways to prevent crime.
Over the course of the past two years, the NCPC has been an active and supportive partner in many aboriginal communities across the country by investing over $46 million to fund 40 crime prevention projects aimed at aboriginal communities, most of which are currently active for the next couple of years.
This is part of the documentation you were given. Historically, the NCPC has funded projects to reduce offending and indeed prevent victimization, which have produced quite positive results, such as the domestic violence treatment option in Whitehorse that was funded in 2000 or the Gwich'in outdoor classroom project in the NWT.
But I will not dwell on these programs since you have in front of you the summary of the evaluation, which shows that these initiatives helped to reduce the offending behaviours among youth.
One of the current ongoing projects is the Aboriginal Women's Support Centre at the Minwaashin Lodge, in Ottawa. This is a multi-service centre that provides culturally appropriate healing, educational and recreational services to the Aboriginal communities. The three-year project will employ an educational approach to try to prevent forms of violence, including violence against women, among girls and boys ages 12-18. Participants will be drawn from those youth who are currently using the services of the sponsoring organization and its partners. Over the course of this three-year project, it is estimated that 200 Aboriginal youth will participate.
These are examples of the types of projects that are funded by the National Crime Prevention Strategy. We have good reason to believe that they will help to reduce violence against Aboriginal women, and violence in general.
Thank you.