Dawn Robins (left) and Stan Tu’Inukuafe (right) take questions from the audience on the new anti-gang strategy. (Alison Sandstrom/paNOW Staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

A team effort

P.A. organizations discuss anti-gang strategy

Jan 21, 2020 | 8:00 AM

P.A. community groups met on Monday to learn more about how they can work together to help a new anti-gang strategy coming to the city this spring.

Among the nearly 100 people who filled the gym at the Bernice Sayese Centre were NGOs, politicians and youth leaders.

The gang violence prevention strategy is a $4 million provincial initiative. In P.A. it’s being delivered by the Saskatoon-based organization STR8 UP, in partnership with the West Flat Citizen’s Group and P.A. Outreach.

Over the course of the next four years, outreach workers, counsellors and mentors will work with up to 57 former and current gang members to try to reduce their risk of reoffending and re-integrate them into their communities.The precise number and participants have yet to be determined.

Programming will include training for interviews with potential employers or probations officers, sharing circles and modules on problem-solving, relationships, culture and anger management.

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In some cases, clients will also be referred to other community services. The purpose of Monday’s meeting was to build an inventory of the sort of supports available.

“If we know they struggle with addictions or mental health or they need housing or employment, if we have the community network, we can say ‘hey, here’s a place that can help with mental health, here’s a place that can help with parenting,'” explained STR8 UP co-founder Stan Tu’Inukuafe. “It allows them to incorporate that as part of their healing journey.”

West Flat Citizens Group Executive Director Dawn Robins said the attendance at Monday’s meeting spoke volumes about the level of commitment from the community to the project.

“We’re all on the same page, we’re all trying to move forward, whether its corrections right down to youth programs, we’re all trying to better Prince Albert,” she said.

Robins is still looking for office space for the program. She had hoped to potentially use the old Boy Scouts Hall, but has been told by the City of P.A. that it will not be available in the short-term, although it could be an option in the future. She said other agencies have offered her space for the program and she’s currently reviewing other available facilities.

Aside from securing an office, staff for the anti-gang program need to be hired and trained. Robins said the program’s anticipated start date is currently April 1.

“As a community if we work together to be able to help these individuals get back into society [and] become better parents, better individuals, I think we’ll make a generational impact,” she said, adding that the effects would be felt not just in P.A. but in surrounding First Nations as well.

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom