Mr. Speaker, on Thursday, March 4, 2004, the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, on behalf of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, announced $7.9 million in funding in support of 162 community based crime prevention initiatives in Ontario.
The announcement was made in my riding of Parkdale--High Park at the Ground Level Café, which was also a recipient of $50,000. The Ground Level Café is operated by Ground Level Youth Ventures who provide job training, life skills and job search workshops to at-risk youth.
The funding will enable Ground Level Youth Ventures to expand their operations by re-opening a food bank at the Masaryk-Cowan Community Centre, by recruiting more prospective employers for mentoring, and by partnering with the Parkdale-Liberty Economic Development Corporation in the new Parkdale community market.
The funding which was announced comes from the federal government's national crime prevention strategy which is designed to support community based initiatives on combating the underlying causes of crime. The national crime prevention strategy was launched in 1998 and has funded over 4,000 projects nationally.