In collaboration with communities and other stakeholders, the Department was mandated with the design and implementation of a nine agenda “global” crime prevention initiative. Below is a description of each of its components.
Community Awareness and Education
Design and implementation of various programs and resources to raise awareness of key justice issues affecting communities including drug/alcohol abuse, youth gangs, sexual exploitation, impact and consequences of crime, domestic/family violence, etc.
The Community Justice Officer working with Community Justice Committee raises awareness on a number of issues locally. The Department also has a series of workshops on specific issues related to justice issues and the legal system that travel throughout the Cree communities annually to educate and inform the public.
Community Mobilization
Development of processes and programs that help mobilize the broader community – including youth groups, Elders, local business and organizations, police service members, band councils, parents and others - to participate in community safety and crime prevention efforts. Research shows that communities with the best justice outcomes are those where many community stakeholders are working together to reduce and prevent crime.
The Department has started a series of Community Dialogues on issues chosen by the community whereby key stakeholders are invited to start a dialogue. In subsequent meetings more members of the community are invited until it becomes a dialogue with many voices discussing important issues and bringing out solutions and plans of actions. Also, the Department has started Community Hubs of key stakeholders to deal with cases of high risk or importance to the community. It brings together many front-line services to allow agencies to collaborate on solutions locally before situations escalate.
Youth Centres
The Department is working closely with Youth Councils and Departments to animate plans and programs for raising youth engagement in community life. Through the Youth Engagement Fund we empower youth leadership with resources to address larger local issues impacting the local youth population.
Youth Intervention and Diversion
The Youth Enrichment Service (YES) is a youth intervention program to work with youth who are not fully engaged in school. The Department works closely with children and youth suspended to ensure they are caught up on their classwork, provide one-on-one support, do workshops together on key social issues, and encourage them to be engaged in school. There are daily daily updates to the parents and teachers.
Working closely with the youth protection director to develop program where youthful offenders aged 11 to 17 years are diverted to community-based programs and services (so-called “extra-judicial measures”) that address the factors that got them into trouble in the first place, rather than being formally charged and possibly entering the criminal justice system.
Restorative Justice
Restorative Justice is about addressing the harm caused by an incident within a community, healing, and inclusiveness in the process. There are many programs and services that the Department delivers that addresses restorative justice aspects.
Cree CAVAC offices are in place to ensure that justice locally is not only about the offender, but it includes measures so the community and individuals impacted by an incident are addressed as well.
In the Rehabilitation programs the Department runs, there are two key requirements that the offender takes responsibility for their action in some way, and that the work program they are on gives back to the community or individual is some way.
There will also be aspects in Gladue Reports recommendations and Correctional Release Plans that call for actions and programs that help address issues.
One of the key Restorative Justice initiatives recognized by the Government is the work of the Community Justice Committees. The Committees are comprised of representatives of the community that can take and determine appropriate measures locally to deal with incidents, which may include circles, community hours, apologies, offender victim mediation, counseling, conflict resolution and contributions of resources to local organizations related to the focus of an offence.
Police Service Crime Prevention
Working with the Eeyou Eenou Police Force, the Department participates in the development and implementation of initiatives related to crime prevention such as Neighbourhood Watch programs, education and awareness sessions on key issues facing the communities, collaborative approaches on high stress incidents in the Cree communities, and on local crime prevention weeks in the communities.
Justice System Support
The Department invested in multimedia technology to allow for the holding of hearings via HD video conferencing units in all the Cree communities. This means that for youth protection hearings and emergency hearings, this can be done in a timely way and a significant reduction in costs and travel. The technology further supports hearings where parties may be in other communities by linking to other courtrooms throughout Eeyou Istchee, and allows the court to maintain court dates when weather does not permit. The Department has a Justice Administrator that coordinates with the various courts in Quebec and Canada to ensure our justice facilities are ready to host 100s of sittings throughout the year.
Community Economic Development
The Department works closely with ASD, local businesses, and other stakeholders to provide training and employment programs for at risk youth and Cree offenders in our C.R.E.E. Program. This programs successfully place individuals in training programs or work sites, and provide subsidization to local businesses willing to give individuals an opportunity to change their lives around. The Department also provides some workshops and other support for change for these individuals, and if expressing a desire for creating a business will help connect them with programs and services locally to help support their dreams.
The Department also offers a Record Suspension service when individuals become eligible to help make their more employable in the local and regional economy.
Sports and Recreation
Sports and Recreation activities can build character, social skills, leadership qualities, and enhance an individual’s community engagement. The Department works with other stakeholders to provide programs to engage youth on important social issues impacting local youth, work with at-risk children and youth, or to specifically address a local issue.
The Youth Engagement Fund empowers youth to plan events or projects to address local youth issues. Through the Fund, the Department supports canoe brigades, summer camps, workshops, cultural programs, and other events, but all with elements that engage participants on local social issues causing criminal activity or that the participants themselves are at-risk.
The SNAP Program works in schools, and also has outreach with summer camps to engage youth and with cognitive behaviour therapy integrated in the programming impart tools for youth and children to deal with issues. The We Days and Me to We Camps are about social engagement with the youth so they make positive impacts in their own communities, as well as the world community.
