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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCAO-07-032 - Community Safety & Crime Prevention Update~4 ~~~ ems` ~~~i~~f f~r~~~~~~,i~~~~c,~i o.''' ~~ftc_~ Report To: Berry Vrbanovic, Chair and Members Finance and Corporate Services Committee Date of Meeting: August 13, 2007 Submitted By: Shelley Adams, Director, Community and Corporate Planning Ext 2476 Prepared By: Shelley Adams, Director, Community and Corporate Planning Ext 2476 Ward(s~ Involved: All Date of Report: August 3, 2007 Report No.: CAO-07-032 Subject: Community Safety and Crime Prevention in the City of Kitchener: An Update RECOMMENDATION: For information only. BACKGROUND: In October 2006, Council received and adopted "A Plan for a Healthy Kitchener, 2007-2027" (P4HK) as the community's vision for twenty years into the future. P4HK provided a unified strategic approach to key areas essential to the health and vitality of the City of Kitchener. It articulated priorities identified in consultation with the community -quality of life, leadership and community engagement, diversity, downtown, development, and the environment. And it provided high level recommendations for action in each of these areas to be completed over the next 4 years, 2007-2010, the term of the current Mayor and Council. With respect to community safety and crime prevention, A Plan for a Healthy Kitchener puts fort two specific recommendations: 1. That the City work with its many partners -individuals, families, neighbourhoods, organizations and all orders of government - to create a culture of safety, through social development and through increasing the capacity of communities to discuss, define, and address their shared concerns; And, 2. That the City continues to focus resources, and create partnerships, to address the issue of safety perception in the downtown. This report serves to update Council on our activities -current and planned - in responding to our citizens' priorities for building and maintaining a culture of safety in the City of Kitchener. REPORT: Individual and community safety and security is critical to quality of life. Indeed, 88% of Canadians consider being able to live in a safe environment one of the most important aspects of their lives The Key to Safer Municipalities, 2005}. By virtue of our municipal mandate and our approach to providing services and supports to this community, the City of Kitchener contributes substantially to the primary prevention of crime, addressing it at its roots, in a number of ways: (i} social development and inclusion; formal and informal recreation and leisure activities, subsidy programs that enable people to take part in art instruction, swimming lessons, hockey school, summer camps, etc., neighbourhood-based community resource centres, congregate-dining for older adults who may be isolated by virtue of physical ability or language, well defined and professionally supported volunteerism and citizen engagement programs, comprehensive fire prevention and public education programs, growing youth outreach efforts, serve as examples. In this way, our municipality contributes substantially to community safety and security by connecting people to people, people to programs and people to community. (ii} land-use planning; effective urban design is demonstrated to create and nurture safe neighbourhoods and commercial areas. Research shows that people living in greener surroundings report lower levels of fear, fewer incivilities and less violent behaviour. The more trees, grass, trails and shared natural spaces available, the more they are used, and, by extension, the more opportunity for informal social interaction and a greater sense of community. The City of Kitchener's newly developed urban design guidelines ("Neighbourhood Design; a Committed Approach to Healthy Communities"} embody planning principles that will promote, reinforce and implement specific safe neighbourhood features. (iii} environmental design; pedestrian friendly streetscapes, the removal of graffiti and garbage in public spaces, bright and creative use of lighting, and well maintained and inhabited buildings make public spaces feel safe. In addition, City of Kitchener applies the principles of "community safety through environmental design" (CSTED} to all new development, through the site-plan review process, and works with all partners -fire, police, and neighbourhood members - in ensuring CSTED recommendations are implemented. Embedding community safety and security into all that we do is becoming a way of doing business for the corporation. As importantly, we are doing so out of educated awareness, with focus, and toward maintained and increased quality of life for all citizens. In addition, the City is involved -across local systems and with all orders of government - in fostering community safety and security through focused activities in this regard. Specifically; Safe and Healthy Advisory Committee The role of the Safe and Healthy Advisory Committee is to advise Council and staff on a broad range of matters related to building and maintaining the vitality and the health of this community. The mandate of the committee is to provide advice concerning policies, programs and services in areas such as; community safety and crime prevention, access to and equity across program and service areas, issues and impacts related to poverty and local housing issues. The Safe and Healthy Advisory Committee is currently refining its work plan for the upcoming term. There were five themes that emerged during this process that will serve as the umbrella 2 framework for which the committee will develop specific action items. These areas of focus are as follows; Access, Equity and Inclusion Community Safety Youth Engagement Community Engagement on Green Strategies The Festival of Neighbourhood as a Tool for Building Bridges. We will keep Council and staff within the corporation apprised as directions and actions are crystallized under each of these priority areas, given their relevance to community priorities. We anticipate particular action items and strategies will evolve organically, as an outcome of our upcoming community planning conference, detailed below. Creating a Culture of Safety for Kitchener. a Future Search Conference P4HK articulates two clear and actionable recommendations specific to underscoring a culture of safety across the City; addressing perceptions of safety in the downtown core and creating a city-wide culture of safety through capacity building and social development in neighbourhoods. Staff are moving forward on initiatives specific to the downtown core, through the internal Downtown Leadership Group across function operating team}, through the ongoing implementation of the Downtown Strategic Plan led by Economic Development, and as active members of the Kitchener Downtown Community Collaborative. Earlier in the year, the Office of the Mayor and Council hosted a meeting of police, Police Services Board Chair, Regional Chair, Kitchener Downtown Business Association, and City staff (bylaw, downtown and community planning} regarding current bylaw and enforcement issues and potential strategies to address them. All of this, at the same time as the City's Safe and Healthy Advisory Committee considered and drafted its new workplan for their term of appointment. Clearly -there was concerted focus and shared concern regarding community safety and crime prevention in the City. And there was an opportunity to move forward together in addressing it. As such, the Mayor and Council, the City's Safe and Healthy Advisory Committee, and Compass Kitchener will co-host a large scale, multi-stakeholder community forum on September 20 and 21, 2007. Planning is well underway for the conference. A small group of community members, Councillor Vrbanovic and staff have been working hard as the "event planners" over the past 4 months, in partnership with the consultants. Approximately 100 community members have been personally invited -because of skill, knowledge, experience and perspective - to participate in defining and designing a culture of safety for the City of Kitchener at The Children's Museum, on September 20 and 21, 2007. Citizens will come together with business, landlords, human services, multi- cultural organizations and coalitions, police, youth, bylaw and fire, municipal and regional staff, and politicians from all orders of government. The desired result; a 4-year, multi-sectoral action strategy focused on community safety and crime prevention for the City of Kitchener. The "future search" methodology, facilitated by Ray Gordesky and Ingrid Richter from Threshold Inc., has a strong and positive history in our area, having worked with the Region to develop "early years" strategy and with Family and Children Services to develop greater community engagement and a broader orientation to child and family welfare. For a third time, Threshold Inc., through amulti-prospected planning committee, will bring our community together to answer the following 3 questions: 3 1. What does a "culture of safety" in the City of Kitchener look like? (vision) 2. How do we make that dream areality -who needs to be involved, and how? and, 3. What actions do each of the participating stakeholder's agree to "own" in moving forward? A defining aspect of Future Search conferencing is the follow-up on action-planning and implementation. Staff and the consultants will work with the community(s) in the months following the Fall conference to implement, evaluate and communicate progress toward our strategic goal of a safe and healthy community. A Regional and National Partner This community has long understood that partnerships are the most effective tool for creating a safe community. The City of Kitchener has been at Waterloo Region's Community Safety and Crime Prevention table consistently for the past 6 years and, before that, was well represented through neighbourhood members and city staff on specific projects. The goal of the CSCPC is to bring individual, neighbourhoods, organizations and government together, to close gaps between service silos and identify new directions for crime prevention. "...this multi- disciplinary approach is at the heart of prevention efforts, because no one system has the answer, no one service has the solution." (CSCPC Governance materials, 2005} Practically, the model assumes leadership is fluid and will flow to or through the most appropriate and skilled partner(s) for the issue at hand. This is locally known as "the integrated model", or....."who leads what, and when?" When crime and crisis are usual daily occurrences, the police and other enforcement or crisis intervention partners will take the lead. An example; the closing a few years ago of alodging-house, where the safety and security of very vulnerable young adults was of concern, involved City Fire and Bylaw, Waterloo Regional Police, Waterloo Regional Homes for Mental Health, and the Region of Waterloo's Social Services and Housing departments. Neighbourhood members and the local Councillor did much to bring the issue to the attention of those who could do something about it, and have continued to keep safety and security on everyone's agenda, through community building activities and problem solving meetings with partners to address issues as they arise. In other instances, a community will take the lead in responding to increased crime or the risk of it, and engage partners as they determine "who" or "what" is needed. Recent -and very successful -community building efforts in the Paulander Drive area, lead by the community and supported by the Community Safety and Crime Prevention Council, the police, Mayor and Council, and others, is a textbook example of grassroots capacity building through the integrated model. CSCPC Municipal Working Group Enhancing the municipal role in community safety and crime prevention is an identified priority area for public education and awareness building, partnership development, and focused problem solving for CSCPC. Council will recall a succession of activities to this end, including the "kickoff" Council Breakfast to release the "Key to Safer Municipalities", the travelling "Together we make a difference!!" video release roadshow and, last month's "Municipal Summit" on community safety and security. Held at Rockway Golf Course and very well attended by Mayors, Councillors, and staff from all local municipalities, the summit represented an occasion for region-wide partners to come together, learn from Claude Vezina from the Pinel Institute for Crime Prevention (Montreal Qu.} and -perhaps more importantly -from each other about best practises for addressing community safety at its roots, using an integrated framework and approach. The CSCPC Municipal Working Group, Chaired by City of Kitchener staff, is currently 4 reviewing opportunities for action -with old and new municipal partners - as identified at the summit and in consideration of local priorities. The CSCPC Fall update to Municipal Councils will communicate plans and progress therein. Institute for the Prevention of Crime (IPC): Municipal Network it ,i tr, i t i r i - i t- i ri li i ; i i i r:tr i i t~` t l 1' tl I , 1 I : I 1' 1 1' tl FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS: Policy planning and program activities -prevention through problem-solving and community mobilization -are funded through existing budgets in Community Services and CAO Operating budgets. The full cost of Creating a Culture of Safety in Kitchener (Future Search} is $29,000.00 including; consultant fees x$25,000.00), 2 day rental costs for the Childress' Museum ($2,000.00}, and catering costs for the two day event (2,000.00}. The Children's Museum has given us a space grant in the amount of $1,500.00, and the Kitchener Downtown Business Association has contributed up to a maximum of $1,000.00 to contribute to catering costs, reducing the City's contribution to a total of $26,500.00, to be funded out of the CAO Corporate Planning capital account. CONCLUSION: Through mandate and commitment, the organization contributes substantially to the safety and security of this community and continues sustained efforts in this regard. The strategic priorities identified by the community through P4HK have been embraced. Our City benefits -and contributes to - a rich and solid partnership network dedicated to a safe and healthy community. Shelley Adams, Director Community and Corporate Planning 5