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The Fort Frances Youth Justice Committee program was spearheaded
by Robert (Buster) Young, Fort Frances' Crown Attorney, who
organized and chairs the Steering Committee. The Steering
Committee selected the United Native Friendship Centre (UNFC)
as the host agency early in 2002, which was approved by the
Ministry of the Attorney General (MAG). The selection of a
Host Agency is one of the most important decisions a new program
will make. The support and infrastructure offered by a Host
Agency is critical to the success of the program.
The UNFC then prepared and submitted budgets and advertised
for a Youth Justice Coordinator. Budgets were approved and
in July 2002 Steve Latimer was hired to fill the Coordinator's
position. For the next three months several meetings were
held with the Steering Committee and guidance was given in
relation to getting the program operational. A Conferencing
model was selected and a number of different programs were
studied. It was decided that we would use an OPP model with
some changes.
Facilitators were selected from referrals made by members
of the Steering Committee. It was decided that five would
be sufficient to handle the workload and that we would evaluate
this decision after the committee had been operational for
a while. Training was arranged and the necessary oaths and
paperwork were completed.
The forms required to document and track each case were developed.
It was decided that two areas were paramount in making this
program solid and successful. First we would have to educate
the two Police Departments that would be involved and second
Public education would be required.
The Police segment involved shift briefings at the OPP Detachment
and the First Nation Police office. Steve was able to deliver
these briefings in Sept. and Oct of 2002. They were well received.
Public education involved three areas - Public Presentations,
media coverage and presentations to selected businesses.
- Public presentations were made to a number of groups.
No request was turned down. Inter-agency group, School Violence
Committee, Counselling Services, Community Policing Committee
and Several First Nation Territories were some of the groups
involved. Steve traveled with the Detachment Commander to
Township Council Meetings and made presentations to all
local politicians.
- Media was invited to our training day and we received
coverage in three newspapers, on two radio stations and
had a syndicated story done.
- Several businesses, that had shoplifting problems were
approached and agreed to participate after having the program
explained to them.
In October, after a Training Day was conducted by Carol Lee
Smith and Barbara Krever, the committee became operational
and waited for its first referral. They were soon to come.
Public education continued and will always be a part of our
program. Steve was invited to attend a Vital Services day
that was very successful and introduced many people from across
the District to the program.
The police education also continues. Steve has attended a
victim services workshop for First Nations Police and updated
them on the progress of our program. It is worth noting that
our pre-charge referrals have come to dominate the cases we
do. This indicates that the decision to make presentations
to the Police was a good one. There appears to be complete
buy-in from local law enforcement.Committee Members have also
been active in attending training sessions and workshops,
both locally and provincially including MAG training in Toronto
and participating and presenting at the Shaping Ontario's
Response to the Youth Criminal Justice Act Conference in Toronto
February 5-7, 2003.
Locally members have attended seminars dealing with the Youth
Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) and Youth and the law.The Steering
Committee has been very instrumental in making good, solid
decisions that have stood this program in good stead, meeting
every other month or sooner when necessary. The support, expertise
and assistance given us by MAG staff has also been invaluable
and a major contributor to our success.A number of Youth Justice
Conferences have been conducted in the community and received
very positive feedback from parents and victims alike. Most
importantly, the young people who have taken advantage of
the program have put a good effort forward. Compliance with
resolution agreements has been good. Short debriefings have
taken place after each Conference and much has been learned
from these experiences. The program hopes to hold some advanced
training with MAG staff and one thing on the agenda is an
overall debriefing where each Facilitator will have the opportunity
to discuss their Conferences. This will be a great opportunity
for the program to evolve and fine-tune the process.
The program is solid and doing the job it was created to do.
It has strong public support, it is an asset to our community
and the program looks forward to being able to expand it in
the area of offences that it can deal with. This would benefit
all concerned.
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