Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services
 RCMP Const. Jason Gott of Fort Simpson and Barb Hood representing the NWT Seniors' society at the National Crime Prevention workshop in Yellowknife. - Dawn Ostrem/NNSL photo |
At least that was the impression more than 30 people from across the territories gave last week.
Representatives of NWT communities gathered in Yellowknife on Oct. 11 to find out how to siphon millions of dollars from the federal government for crime prevention programs.
"We are the number one source of crime prevention and we have to accept that," said RCMP Insp. Lawrence Aimoe about the federal police force.
The senior policy analyst and RCMP liaison officer to the solicitor general in Ottawa explained that traditionally police held reactive roles in communities. He said proactive measures were seen as something extra.
"But we can't do it by ourselves," he added.
Members of the RCMP, government and community groups brainstormed to figure out what needs to be done to foster crime prevention.
The National Strategy on Community Safety and Crime Prevention announced they had about $56 million to hand out in order to do that in July.
The community Mobilization Program for the NWT has about $200,000 to give to community projects.
The workshop last week was to teach community representatives how to best spend it.
Harold Cook attended the workshop and expressed concern about the normalcy of alcohol abuse in the territories.
The victim's advocate for the Grollier Hall Healing Circle spoke candidly of drinking heavily before he stopped over 20 years ago.
Sexual abuse affects, such as what happened at Grollier Hall in Inuvik and other residential locations, is irritated by silence and wrongly mended by drinking, he said.
"If they stay in that conspiracy of silence it is going to fester," he added. "We need leadership to uncover common denial issues ... There will be no need to numb your pain if the community heals together."
Aimoe, who led that workshop and others around the country, said some research suggests it may take up to 15 years to regain lost ground, a consequence of rapid transition among Northern aboriginal culture, and re-create holistic communities.
It is Elaine Woodward's job to help use the federal money to get that going.
She is the community mobilization program co-ordinator based in Yellowknife.
She said since 1998 118 proposals have been received and 44 were funded.
Examples include on- the-land camps, youth centres, womens' and childrens' programs among many others.
"I would like to see growth and advancement in terms of assuming responsibility for crime prevention," she said.
