In the previous thread on Social Capital, Eric and I were writing about the need for longterm support when attempting to provide services for Inuit youth. With Making Connections for Youth in Pangnirtung our solid longer term supporter has been the National Crime Prevention Centre who pledged 1.6 million dollars over five years. We are very grateful.
As Eric writes, we feel our crime prevention work has been worthwhile. That said, there is still crime in Pangnirtung that's for sure! When we are unable to prevent crime by youth then we expect the Justice system to take over. I believe that system is failing our community. Circuit Court comes and goes often wrecking havoc. Community Justice, on the other hand, does not seem to be providing adequate follow-up either.
This fall we had trauma counsellor Jim Hall in Pangnirtung for a series of workshops with our youth workers and other interested parties. This quote is from his report after that visit:
"The opportunity to discuss the “Community Justice” program revealed that none of the participants had a very clear sense of what the program was about. Although not necessarily so, this may indicate that the program is not well understood by the greater community. If some of the people hired to work with young people are not familiar with the program it does create the question, how well do the young people who will be directly affected by the program if they break the law understand its expectations and demands on a young offender? How much of a deterrent is the program, or even a refocusing platform if the people who will come in direct contact don’t understand the program or its intensions?"
Good questions Jim... Anyone else have thoughts on this?
Reply With Quote