By Chelsea Laskowski

First research report on Prince Albert’s Hub released

May 9, 2014 | 6:40 AM

The launch of the first assessment of Community Mobilization Prince Albert (CMPA) on Thursday afternoon both acknowledged how far the program has come and gave advice for its future operation.

The Hub and COR (Centre of Responsibility) concepts revolve around human service agencies agreeing to work together with combined resources, building an overall healthier community.

This involves proactively addressing situations that may cause harm to people, through meetings and interventions. For example, if a child is missing school after being a good student, these agencies can explore the reasons why and offer help.

The concept was first brought to Canada by the Dale McFee, then chief of Prince Albert Police Service. It has expanded across the province and the country since then.

But until now, there hadn’t been any scientific research of Community Mobilization.

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The research, done by the University of Saskatchewan’s Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science and Justice Studies, culminated in a report titled “Risk-Driven Collaborative Intervention: A Preliminary Impact Assessment of Community Mobilization Prince Albert’s Hub Model.”

The group of more than 100 people gathered in the Ches Leach Lounge in the Art Hauser Centre for the report’s unveiling spoke to the diversity of groups involved in Prince Albert’s Hub.

Members of Prince Albert Police Service, the Prince Albert Parkland Health Region, city council, the Prince Albert Fire Department, the Prince Albert and District Chamber of Commerce, and other community groups were present.

Dr. Chad Nilson was the researcher behind the project, and a keynote speaker at the ceremony.

In sharing his work, he commended these people for their efforts ever since the Hub and COR were just a vision in 2008.

“I can’t say enough that this city has a lot and there’s a reason the rest of the country is looking at Prince Albert,” Nilson told the crowd.

Starting in November of 2012, he immersed himself in the day-to-day operations of CMPA as an arms-length academic, another speaker, CMPA’s executive director Ken Hunter said from the podium.

This work did not involve speaking with ‘clients,’ or people who were intervened on through door-knocking or meetings with Hub members due to confidentiality and privacy,” Nilson explained.

Through his empirical study with the supporting agencies, Nilson found much to be impressed with in the program.

He explained that the team approach of CMPA gets good responses when often a police officer alone may make a ‘client’ uncomfortable.

“When we walk in and we say ‘hey, we’re here to offer support. We’re not going to ram anything down your throat. It’s just, we want to work with you,’ it changes the tone a bit. When they see social workers, and educators, and police officers, and mental health experts working together to help them … that changes the game in that room,” Nilson said.

Other assets include giving people an easier way to find the help they need, barriers between agencies breaking down, and taking situations that could lead to breaking the law or other negative community effects, and making them more manageable.

However, Nilson’s research also pointed out some of the challenges of CMPA. This included difficulty interpreting privacy laws as people discuss their clients in a larger group, no way to make sure the supports offered have been delivered, and the extra strain put on groups that support the ‘clients.’

Despite receiving some criticism and recommendations with CMPA, Hunter said he was always excited about Nilson’s work.

“By the time Dr. Nilson started having a look at things we’d already been at it a year, and we knew quite confidently we were onto something really good that point. I actually was very excited about that. Like, really? We’re going to have an outside academic put some science to this? Everybody talks about their program with a bias, everybody’s going to say it’s good,” Hunter said.

“What Chad’s really saying to the government of Saskatchewan, ‘you guys really oughta get in behind this and continue to work with it. This is a good thing.’ So that’s validation for us.”

He added that one recommendation, saying that community-based organizations should be involved in community mobilization, is already being pursued by CMPA.

Nilson’s future research will include interviewing people who are served through the Hub. He explained that in the relatively new program, those people may still be dealing with their high-risk situations and not want a researcher to speak to them. However, he wants to 

He explained the University of Saskatchewan and University of Regina have aggressive research agendas involving community mobilization programs around the province.

claskowski@panow.com

On Twitter: @chelsealaskowsk