Saskatoon gets province’s second Centre of Responsibility

A crime reduction partnership that originated in Prince Albert has launched in Saskatoon after the provincial government provided budget funding for two new Centres of Responsibility (CORs) in March.

On Friday, the government announced an annual investment of $475,000 for Saskatchewan’s second COR, located in Saskatoon. The first COR started in Prince Albert.
 
The concept was an expansion of the HUB model, in which front-line workers collaborate to provide immediate support to high-risk families in the province. A COR is comprised of similar front-line workers but will analyze the “bigger picture” using trends and statistics gathered at the HUB level.
 
“The whole beauty of the COR is to look at the gaps that we’re seeing in services, analyze those gaps and try to come up with some long-term solutions and strategies to help fill those gaps in,” Weighill told reporters after Friday’s announcement.
 
The first gathering of the Saskatoon COR is expected to take place in the spring of 2015, and the group will continue to meet on a consistent basis, Weighill said. Saskatoon’s HUB started in April and has seen around 100 cases so far.
 
Both the HUB and the COR include representatives from police, social services, the health region and the Saskatoon Tribal Council. Weighill said the groups will focus on issues such as homelessness, addictions and mental health, which are often factors in crime.
 
“They’ll be looking at what drives some of the acute risk of people, and they can start to track the kind of people that we’re dealing with, what their issues are, what they’re causes are and fill some of the gaps that the service providers are doing,” he said.
 
“Is social services anteing up the right way? Is police doing the right thing; is mental health doing the right thing?” Weighill said. 
 
The HUB and COR model is part of the province’s Building Partnerships to Reduce Crime initiative. As of 2013, Prince Albert has seen a 38 per cent drop in violent crime rates since the city’s HUB was established in 2011.
 
Saskatoon and Prince Albert are currently the only cities with both a HUB and a COR. Earlier this year, the government announced they would be setting up HUBs in Regina, North Battleford, Yorkton, La Ronge, Moose Jaw, Estevan/Weyburn, Nipawin, Lloydminster and Swift Current.

bmcadam@rawlco.com

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