The Director of Community Development for Prince Albert believes when it comes to ensuring quality of life for all residents, what his city is doing is unique.
Craig Guidinger says last year, Prince Albert was awarded a $1.4 million federal grant from Public Safety Canada. The city then initiated a Community Safety and Well-Being team to address issues such as crime, substance abuse, homelessness and food security.
Since then, 15 action teams have been developed, each targeting a vulnerable sector of the community.
He says these action teams do “Everything from (organizing) a homeless shelter, to providing wraparound services for unhoused individuals that face addictions issues. We’ve got a data collected team. We’ve got a landlord table that deals with the quality of our housing. We’ve got a discarded needle table.”
He lists several successful projects that have come out of the Community Safety and Well-Being initiative, such as lessening sale hours of retail alcohol, and creating an app for reporting the location of discarded needles.
He says partnerships have been formed with over 20 organizations, including Prince Albert Grand Council, which has helped form a squad of recovering individuals who do odd jobs around the city, such as garbage removal.
On Wednesday, the City launched a new Community Safety and Well-Being webpage. On it, residents can view progress updates on these initiatives, as well as discover ways to get involved.
“You really need to get to the grassroots of these issues and help the people in need, and it’s not about just posting on a Facebook page or something like that. We need to make sure that we’re widely accessible, and we need to find unique ways to make what we’re doing known to the greater community.”
Guidinger says City members have had discussions with Edmonton, Saskatoon, Victoria and Surrey regarding their models for tackling homelessness and addictions.
“I am quite proud of what the City of Prince Albert is doing, because we are really taking a front seat to these issues.”
