 |
Community Forum and Summary (cont’d)
"Bringing Back the Power to Your Community"
FLAMBOROUGH COMMUNITY FORUM SUMMARY
Below is a summary from our Community Forum that was held on Saturday morning, May 7th 2005
We had lots of police representation and our guest speaker Dr. Hugh Russell, Ph.D., Community Justice Consultant. First up was Shelley Scott, Director of FICS (Flamborough Information & Community Services) and Project Manager of CAP (Crime Activity Prevention). Shelley gave everyone a rundown of the CAP program, its purpose and longevity. Shelley stated the following;
-
CAP got its funding from the National Crime Prevention Strategy through FICS applying for that grant.
- CAP are going to be the facilitators of the program and need the community’s help and support in making crime prevention a success in Flamborough.
- CAP will focus on grass-roots initiatives for the program as “just putting the bad guys in jail” won’t solve the problem. We need to approach crime prevention through social development. Small group or individual initiatives and keep it in the community for the community. Flamborough could be a model to other rural communities.
- Everyone will break up into small groups for our Break-out sessions on four key areas; seniors issues, youth issues, business issues and rural issues will be collected and compiled and posted on the CAP website.
Karen Brown, Project Coordinator for CAP talked about the survey results (which will also be posted on the website) and the “flavour” of the community. She stated the following;
-
Majority of survey results indicated the perception is that those committing the crimes were in the age range of 11-20 years old. Many surveys complained of slow response times by police and lack of police visibility. Majority of survey results stated the lack of parenting skills, lack of family connectedness, respect, compassion, volunteerism and parents not knowing what their kids are doing and where they are. Comments were also made about “latch-key” kids at a young age.
- Feedback from majority of school principals have been unanimous on the parenting issues. Lack of basic parenting skills for their children, lacking in social skills, respect, etc.
- CAP will launch a Parenting program (enhancing & supporting parenting) which will be for Early Years (0-5 yrs.) and for parents of pre-teens and teens, starting in September 2005 through 2007 and will offer the programs throughout Flamborough. It will be offered to schools, churches, service groups, etc. Anyone who would like to host the program, it will be available, they just have to call the CAP office. These programs will be free of charge. The program will focus on supporting parents and enhancing parenting skills with tools to deal with anger management, stress, bullying, “8 worst things parents can do”, etc. Common sense tips and ideas. It will be a format for parents to share tips and suggestions amongst each other and not feel that they are alone in their struggles.
- Not all Flamborough schools were receptive to CAP. Separate and private schools did not respond to the CAP program.
- CAP will also partner with the Red Cross on their RespectEd program for children and teens which is for violence abuse and prevention.
- Karen also focused on working collaboratively with individuals and businesses in the community to make the program work.
- Karen will take break-out session information and put it together and post it on website and Flamborough Review
|
|
|
|
previous | next |
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
