The recommendation comes in a report jointly submitted by the Winnipeg Police Service and the Community Services Department for consideration next Monday by the Standing Policy Committee on Protection and Community Services.

The report outlines progress that has been achieved since March 2008, when City Council approved LiveSAFE, which recognized that a balanced approach between crime suppression and crime prevention is the most effective way to create safe communities, and which called for collaboration across all sectors of the community.

Earlier this year, dozens of community leaders participated in a community engagement process to identify a number of themes for action towards 2014. These initial themes, which emerged from a series of Community Leaders Forums and a three-day strategic planning process held with leaders from a broad range of sectors within Winnipeg, are preliminary. They will be further developed or possibly integrated into existing community-based efforts, the report said.

The report recommends that the City “commit to providing a leadership role on crime prevention through social development in two specific action themes and within existing resources.”

These two themes are:

• The community and the Winnipeg Police Service working closely together in neighbourhoods using a preventive approach resulting in reduced crime and disorder with the goal of achieving equality of safety throughout the City.
• The community and the City collaborating in building community capacity to develop resiliency in youth, children and families by focusing on recreation.

In addition to the two themes to be championed by the City, the community engagement process identified four preliminary action themes to be championed by community leader representatives who will seek support from a variety of other sectors within Winnipeg depending on mandates. These four themes are:

• Creating family resource centres or ‘hubs’ in selected neighbourhoods to support families through the provision of services such as early learning and child care, literacy programs, crisis support, transportation sharing, and access to sport and arts activities.
• Having a culturally vibrant education system, including a publicly funded Aboriginal School Division.
• Providing greater opportunities for individual development, economic advancement and social inclusion through access to computers and connectivity.
• Developing a community driven organization that focuses on holistic responses to crime prevention through social development.