WHITEHORSE, August 9, 2006 -- The Honourable Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety, today announced $737,468 in funding to support crime prevention initiatives in the Yukon through the National Crime Prevention Centre. With this funding, the Yukon Department of Justice’s Community Court, the Extremely Moving Youth Society and the Yukon Family Services Association will be able to help prevent crime and to help young people build safer communities.“The Government of Canada is very proud to support community-based projects in the Yukon Territory that will help reduce crime by stopping it before it happens,” said Minister Day. “These projects aim to support parents and children as they face exposure to violence, substance abuse and crime,” he added. “By working together and being innovative, we can address the root causes of criminal behaviour,” said the Hon. Elaine Taylor, Yukon Minister of Justice. “Our approach has been to intervene when children are young with positive influences and to try to help people get their lives back on track when they are struggling with addictions as adults.”The Yukon Community Court is today receiving $566,700 from the Government of Canada’s National Crime Prevention Centre to create a therapeutic alternative court within the criminal justice system. This project will reduce recidivism by providing individualized treatment plans for offenders, which address their specific needs. It will work with offenders who have substance abuse problems, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome or other diagnosable mental health problems.The Extremely Moving Youth Society is today receiving nearly $50,000 to provide a lunch hour and after school recreational program in Whitehorse public schools. This project will engage high-risk youth in social programming to help them build confidence and social skills so they can choose positive alternatives to crime.The Yukon Family Services Association is receiving $120,768 for its Parents’ Voices parenting program. This program will provide support to parents of the Kwanlin Dun First Nation to help them develop positive approaches to parenting and learn about healthy child/parent relationships.The NCPC is a Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada program that helps communities develop local solutions to local problems. NCPC works to increase community involvement in crime prevention, develop and share knowledge of effective prevention strategies, and coordinate multi-level support for crime prevention. For further information:Media RelationsPublic Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada613-991-0657Mélisa LeclercDirector of CommunicationsOffice of the Honourable Stockwell DayMinister of Public Safety 613-991-2863Kimberly Chemerika Manager, Northern Region National Crime Prevention Centre867-766-8442Barbara McLeodCommunications CoordinatorYukon Justice867-393-7081
