Manitoba Justice Minister Cliff Cullen was in Thompson Feb. 20 to highlight the provincial government’s investments in programs designed to prevent youth crime in Northern Manitoba through the Proceeds of Crime Fund.
These grants, first announced in December, include one of $25,500 to Thompson’s Peace and Prevention Community, an organization dedicated to providing free events for youth in an effort to combat petty crime and vandalism, as well as $23,604 to Thompson RCMP to bring the Manitoba StreetReach team up for another blitz to locate missing and at-risk youth.
“If there’s a better way to make sure we’re allocating resources to the right people to keep them out of the criminal justice system, that’s what we’re trying to accomplish,” said Cullen. “We certainly want to do whatever we can as early as we can to make sure kids get on the right path.”
Stephanie Third, one of the founding members of Peace and Prevention Community, said the organization was intended to channel anger about crime and vandalism into more positive outlets
“What it stemmed from was just the community not feeling safe and me wanting to provide a way to nicely deal with it rather than in an aggressive angry manner.,” she said.
The focus was initially on foot patrols to keep an eye on what was happening on the streets, but that has shifted to providing free activities for families and youth because that’s what the youth they’ve surveyed say they want.
“We’re really trying to follow what the youth themselves are focused on,” Third said. “What they really want is just more affordable things for their family to do because they feel that strain of their families maybe not being able to afford certain things.”
Const. Sandy Deibert encouraged Third to apply for the grant and Thompson RCMP detachment Insp. Brian Edmonds had praise for both women as well as the provincial government for supporting crime prevention activities in Thompson.
“I’d also like to specially recognize Stephanie Third who was instrumental in creating the Thompson Peace and Prevention organization,” said Edmonds. “[Deibert] does tremendous proactive work in our community and she’s been instrumental in getting the funding for some of the local events that are planned. I truly believe that if we increase or focus on the well being of our young people we lessen the chance of them becoming involved in the criminal justice system as they grow older.”
