Support for Communities to Prevent Crime

November 7, 2012

McGuinty Government Building Stronger Neighbourhoods through Youth Action Plan

Ontario is supporting 21 police and community projects as part of the Youth Action Plan that will identify at-risk young people and provide active community liaisons as well as peer-to-peer strategies to combat bullying and prevent violent crime.

Local police services and the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) will receive funding from the Proceeds of Crime Front Line Policing grant to carry out crime prevention projects.The grant money comes from assets that have been seized by police as a result of being proceeds of crime.

Helping communities tackle crime and gang violence is part of the McGuinty government's provincewide Youth Action Plan, which is getting guns and gangs off the streets, providing positive alternatives for youth and ensuring safer communities and neighbourhoods for all Ontarians.

QUOTES

"Crime prevention is a key element of our Youth Action Plan. By using the proceeds of crime to do this, we’re helping to keep our communities safe while denying criminals the profits from their unlawful activities."

 – Madeleine Meilleur

Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services

"The Toronto Police Service believes that to effectively address youth crime you must engage a number of resources in the response: police, family, education, and community. We thank the Government of Ontario for this investment in our community mobilization strategy."

 – Chief William Blair
Toronto Police Service

QUICK FACTS

• The overall youth crime rate in Ontario is 23 per cent lower than in 2000. The rate of violent crime among youth is also down by 17 per cent over the same period, better than the national rate, which dropped 10 per cent.
• Ontario is investing over $20 million in new funding to support the Youth Action Plan – efficiencies and savings were found to fully offset the cost of expanded and new programs.
• Ontario’s Youth Action Plan will benefit an additional 13,000 young people each year by moving forward on 20 initiatives.

LEARN MORE

• Read about Ontario’s Youth Action Plan
• Former Chief Justice Roy McMurtry and former MPP and Speaker of the House, Alvin Curling, submitted the Review of the Roots of Youth Violence report in 2008. The report has been informing the work of the government ever since.
• Read the province’s “Crime Prevention in Ontario ... A Framework for Action”

CONTACTS

• Brent Ross
  Communications Branch
  416 314-7024
• Seirge LeBlanc
  Minister’s Office
  416 314-2204