People on the Sunshine Coast will benefit from projects to address criminal activity in their community, assist individuals experiencing gender-based violence, and support Indigenous people recovering from trauma.
“Giving people the skills to build and strengthen relationships helps make our community stronger and safer,” stated Nicholas Simons, MLA for Powell River-Sunshine Coast, in a media release. “This funding will help four outstanding local organizations to continue doing this work.”
Four projects in the riding are receiving $131,671 to implement crime prevention and remediation projects in the community, including two in the qathet region: qathet Community Justice Society, community justice projects – $40,000; and Powell River Community Services Organization, Safeteens levels 1 and 2 – $11,671. There were also two grants annouced for the lower Sunshine Coast.
The BC government is providing nearly $9.7 million in one-time grants through the program to support 197 community projects and fund police equipment and training, the release stated. Civil forfeiture grants are funds that go back into communities from seized proceeds of crimes and illegal activity, according to the release. These projects are being led by local governments, community-based not-for-profits, school districts, health authorities, academic institutions, police departments and Indigenous organizations.
The civil forfeiture grant program provides funding to support community safety-related projects throughout BC through six funding streams that align with government commitments in various priority areas related to public safety. These streams include gender-based violence; crime prevention; Indigenous healing; restorative justice; domestic violence and intervention programming; and child and youth advocacy centres, the release stated.
