Building Safer Communities Funding Allocation

Affinity Mentorship Foundation - It Takes A Village: This program aims to support at-risk and gang involved youth through innovative mentorship by transforming mentorship from a one-on-one relationship into a micro community of mentorship via establishing more avenues for mentors/mentees to gather as a group. 

Program Navigation & Referral Program: This program aims to provide outreach support to people experiencing homelessness who are gang-involved or impacted by gang violence with the necessary referrals based on their needs.  This includes resources that indirectly address gang involvement such as housing supports, or directly address involvement such as gang-exit programs.

Community Safety Education: This education, mentorship, and outreach program supports at-risk and gang invovled youth to stay safe from the impact of guns and gangs.  In addition to the core education program, a new initiative will provide information on firearm ownership and safety which will provide youth most at risk of gun and gang exposure to credible, current and relevant resources designed to help them make informed choices on how to remain safe. 

Mental health education, resources, and support for at-risk youth, their parents, caregivers, and youth allies: This program aims to help break the cycle of gang violence, by providing authentic, resiliency-focused interventions in schools and community groups, for youth and their natural supports, specifically designed to develop their mental health awareness, literacy, and supportive skills. The program integrates mental health learning opportunities for youth in local junior and senior high schools, as well as youth community groups.

Real Me Youth Program: This expansion of the Real ME program seeks to address the identified need for more culturally appropriate programming in Calgary to adequately respond to the specific needs, barriers, and challenges faced by newcomer youth and their families. This enhancement will provide additional community awareness, and access to, culturally appropriate prevention and intervention programs for newcomer youth at risk of becoming involved in gang and criminal activity.

Coming to Shore - Protective & Compensatory Resiliency: This program provides wrap around support that focuses in on the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being of at-risk mothers and their children who are fleeing affiliation with gangs, criminal activity, sexual exploitation, violence, and poverty. The program will work to mitigate the impacts of adverse childhood experiences through case management, counselling, and skills development to strengthen and build sufficient protective factors in vulnerable mothers and their children.

Miskanawah: Oskayapewis - Practice is Ceremony & Elizabeth Fry Society of Calgary: Mentorship Program: The initiative will support Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth  who are gang-involved or at risk of gang involvement by providing culturally informed programming and services. Services include: one to one direct youth support, cultural programming and activities, land-based ceremonies, the provision of traditional medicines and cultural supplies, and regular access to Elders and knowledge keepers.

Youth Safety Resources: This program works to address some of the root causes of youth involvement in gang and criminal activity by providing safe social networks, skills development, and removing barriers to education and resources. The program will seek to integrate high-risk black and African youth into communities and schools by providing meaningful recreation, cultural activities, and trades employment programs with the goal of promoting healthy family functioning. 

New Ties (NewT): Safer Communities through Support for Youth exiting Gangs: This dedicated gang intervention program will work to support youth and young adults to safely exit from gangs as well as seeking to help individuals that are on the periphery of joining gangs. Through a wrap around case management service approach, participants are assisted to access and navigate community services and resources. The program will employ multiple strategies to support and address the need of participants including basic needs, employment, education, mental health and addictions, and housing, thereby, addressing the complex needs of individuals that are gang-involved.  

Deterring Involvement in Gangs (D.I.G.): This initiative will engage youth who are gang-involved or at risk of gang involvement, & their natural supports by guiding youth and their supports through case management with assessment, coaching, facilitated referrals, system navigation and advocacy. Using the Family and Natural Supports model, the program will help to create connections & opportunities for positive interactions.

Common Goals: Inclusive Sport for Crime Prevention and Social Development: This initiative employs sporting activities as a prosocial diversion program,  designed to provide a positive team environment for at-risk or gang involved newcomer youth.  With a culturally informed lens, the goal of this program is to prevent and mitigate the risks associated with mental health challenges, addictions, gangs, low school participation, social isolation, and incarceration.

Indigenous Youth Transfer Camps: This culturally informed program will take Indigenous youth onto the land with Elders and knowledge keepers to partake in intensive cultural Rites of Passage, typically called transfer ceremonies. These ceremonies are a closed practice, but allow Indigenous young people to be part of the traditional community. These transfer ceremonies are often necessary for the youth to take on other roles in the community from a traditional perspective, for example, pipecarrier, beaverman, bundle holder, firekeeper, etc. These ceremonies often come with a commitment and support to ‘live a good life’. These would include commitments to avoid drug and alcohol use, gang involvement and crime.

Dying to Fit In Prevention and Intervention Framework: With a focus on South Sudanese youth, this program provides specific, on-going, mitigation programming that hopes to build skills, confidence, and diversion from gang and criminal activity.  Programming will include cultural mentorship, employment preparation, job shadowing, community gathering, and leadership development. At a community level, the program will support youth through dialogue and connection to their natural supports and to encourage stronger support networks (including parents, community leaders, and elders). At a systems level, the program will create forums for youth to share their experiences with racism, exclusion, and isolation, with the hopes of shifting their perspective to change the current dynamic with the police, and broader systems.