The newly reinstated District of 100 Mile House safety committee is up and running with several initiatives on the go.
It is currently working on putting the restorative justice program back together, said committee chair and Coun. Donna Barnett.
The program works with first offenders, whose offences aren’t deemed big enough to go to court. In such cases, there may be the option to seek restorative justice instead. If both the victim and the offender agree, they would meet with RCMP and trained facilitators to come to a resolution. Both victim and offender make statements then the various groups work together to see what the offender can do to rectify the situation.
It could be anything from writing a letter of apology to performing community service.
Barnett said she is a strong supporter of the program as “it had a 99 per cent success rate when done previously.
“It’s helped a lot of people who made one little mistake. They didn’t end up in courts or with a criminal record but wound up becoming a much better person,” said Barnett, adding that it is helpful for the victim as well as there is recognition that they were the victim of an offence.
Facilitators are required to get a criminal record check done and take a training course given in 100 Mile House. Barnett is still gathering information on the details.
Anyone interested in becoming a facilitator should call the district office at 250-395-2434 and leave their information with staff.
“We’re just in the process of organizing a round table of service providers that provide service to us, so we know exactly what is happening out here in the community and the South Cariboo, as far as issues such as crime, mental health issues and what are the biggest creators of crime? (We want to know) how we can we work together to collaborate to hopefully curtail some of the activity out there that is not favourable for our communities.”
The committee also plans on putting together brochures on safety in the home and the community, and trying to get people to pay more attention when driving vehicles.
fiona.grisswell@100milefreepress.net
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