Contributed/ B.C. Government Caucus
April 01, 2015 - 11:15 AM
VERNON – The City of Vernon has received funding from the province’s civil forfeiture program toward its Off The Wall Community Project.
“This is a great, proactive approach for preventing youth from getting into trouble with the police,” Vernon-Monashee MLA Eric Foster said. “It is important that youth learn the social, moral and legal consequences of graffiti vandalism. This will help them make the right choices and help promote a more welcoming and supportive community in Vernon.”
A grant of $6,529 will target youth that have been in conflict with police or are at risk of coming into conflict with authorities. The City of Vernon Community Policing Office will attend schools and teen centres to provide a workshop on graffiti vandalism prevention education.
“The City of Vernon’s Off The Wall Community Project is a collaborative endeavour to educate youth that are involved or are at risk of becoming involved in graffiti vandalism,” said Tanya Laing Gahr, communications and grant coordinator with the City of Vernon. “We are pleased that this grant will allow us the ability to engage these youth in a way that provides them with mentorship opportunities and tools to be creative in a way that builds self-respect, self-esteem, confidence and community pride.”
This year, the priority focus for civil forfeiture grants is on initiatives that address violence against women, and support the Violence Free BC strategy. Other areas where funding was made available included serving victims through restorative justice, community and youth crime prevention, and police education, training and specialized crime prevention equipment.
Since the civil forfeiture program became active, it has returned more than $16 million from successful forfeiture actions to crime prevention grants and victim compensation payments in B.C.
News from © iNFOnews, 2015