The Voice - Alberta Crime Prevention Podcast

Joing VAD as we speak with Albert Crime Preventions' Jean Botta about their organization and what they do in the community.

Transcript

Teresa Makarewich, VAD Program & Services Manager 

Welcome to the voice of Albertans with Disabilities
podcast for April 2023. I'm Teresa Makarewich,
your host and VAD’s program and
service manager. Thank you for joining us today. In today's podcast, I'll
be talking to Jean Botta from
Alberta Crime
Prevention, a VAD
organizational member. VAD has been
talking with our membership to learn about the resources that are available to
the disability community,
and I wanted to get Alberta crime prevention on the podcast to discuss the
resources this organization provides. Together,
We
hold the Power.
According to your website, your goal is to ensure the safety to
Albertans and their communities through education and crime prevention and
Wellness. So please welcome Jean Botta. Hello

Jean Botta, Alberta Crime Prevention 

Hey, good morning. Good morning, Teresa. Thank you very
much for asking us and including us in this. This is an excellent way to get.
To know each other. 

Teresa Makarewich, VAD Program & Services Manager 

Thank you for taking the opportunity to join our podcast.
Can you introduce yourself for
everyone? 

Jean Botta, Alberta Crime Prevention 

So my name is Jean Botta.
Im the chair president of Alberta Community Crime Prevention Association, an association
that I've
been involved with since 2016, became
the chairperson the year after. We are a community
based
board with representation throughout
Alberta, there's a, it's
a 15
board
member
Committee
and we have representation from Northern Northwest South, Northeast central,
southern of the province. We also have law enforcement. We have an RCMP officer
and we have a Calgary city police officer and we have 4 -3 municipal county councilors
when I became involved with the board, there was a lot of representation from
the IT was a lot of police. And a lot of urban representation and being as I'm
from rural Alberta, I just saw the need where we needed to take this out
further into the rural areas and
also
include Aboriginal Metis settlement
and a lot of the diverse cultures that are out in the rural communities. So
that is, So that's kind of us and and
we’re  the connector between we like to say sometimes
a conduit, right. So
if people are
needing services or there's an issue, we
will
connect you with somebody within And
these communities. 

Teresa Makarewich, VAD Program & Services Manager 

Perfect. I have a few questions to gather information for
our listeners. And then I'm just
wondering to start with, can you describe who Alberta crime prevention is as an
organization? 

Jean Botta, Alberta Crime Prevention 

So it's
a provincially funded organization. Like I said, it's
it's
got a 15
member
board. It was started in 1989 and it was
started by a
Alberta Community police services and they wanted to discuss the mutual crime
related issues within communities because in those days they found there was
a lot of things that were happening with it. The name was altered a bit because
first they thought it was just Only the police and the government needed to
talk, and
they found out that they needed to go into the communities and really find out.
I mean, communities know what's best, what's
going on. We we,
we're
there, we're on the
ground. And so
then they amended it, they put the Alberta community, the word community, within
the the name and that. Was
done in 1989. So there again, our goals are to
ensure safety, tell Burtons and their communities through education and crime
prevention awareness and we believe that strong communities are  Built when we all work together. Over the
years we have done a lot of work  Like I
said, we started going out into the rural communities, the Aboriginal Metis
settlement,
diverse cultures, but we had a visioning session in 2020 because we felt crime
prevention was a little bit too narrow. And part of our mandate is we are To
hold A
annual crime prevention conference, which is to discuss emerging trends and
issues that are
Happening
in communities and also to provide
tools and concepts that delegates can go home to their communities and implement.
We also Co
chair,
we were chair but then service Alberta has
joined
us about six years ago, We Co chair the Fraud Prevention Month which is a
committee About 20 plus members and that's
from different law enforcement agencies, institutions in Alberta and sometimes
nationally. And we talk about fraud prevention and just what's kind
of going on in the in the province in the
country. So
we start our meetings in early November. We gather as a group,
we pick our themes. We have a discussion about
what the trends are and by January, we're
looking at venues to hold events and whatever for fraud prevention. And I will
say in the years that i've
been involved This has become a big deal and like I I
did a,
 we did an event
and read your just the middle of March. And like I said in my talk fraud
prevention month isn't just March, it's
like every day because the scammers are getting more sophisticated
and people are getting really taken for a lot of money. There's
a lot of violation
going on. There's a lot of victimization,
that kind of stuff. So
we it's
something we really, really have
to
be very aware of. So
we've really made an honest effort to and there again, get out into to more
communities, let more groups know about what's going on and how and education and
awareness is so, so Very, very important. 

Teresa Makarewich, VAD Program & Services Manager 

You mentioned fraud prevention Awareness Month is in
March, but I think you should do a plug and tell us when your conference
is. 

Jean Botta, Alberta Crime Prevention 

Ohh, our conference is
May 1st through to the third. So
the 1st of May is the pre
conference workshops and we've got 3
presenters. Actually
we just had Inspector Fisher from Sussex UK on a call this morning just giving
us a bit of an overview of what he was doing it and There was media on the
line. And then we have two days of conference. So
we have a variety of presenters
and presentations that are going on. And our theme this year is community
safety through connectivity, health and
innovation. So
there are some social issues that we're talking about with one of our keynote speakers
is
Karen Gosby. As she wrote a book and she's
a victim of domestic violence. And then, of course, Inspector Fisher from
Sussex, UK. And he'll be talking
about Rural crime and their rural crime team and what and what they're
doing as far as strategies and working with their partners, whatever, I like I
say to people, please go to our website, www.albertacrimeprevention.com. And
just take a gander through a lot of a lot of the presentations
we
have a Nexus working event on the 2nd of May and that is going to be from 7:00
to 11:00. And we have over 85 people registered right now for that. So
it's
a very people like to get together, To network to find out what's
going on, what's what's
going on in other regions of the province and whatever. So yeah,
our conference is a big deal
and it's
 It has become more and this year we're
showcasing
 The RCMP K Division, Community safety
and well-being branch, which was announced in September of 2022, and actually
that
is a unique it's unique to
Alberta and it's
one-of-a-kind in in Canada. So
there's
no other province that has this yet, so, They're
again, they're busy working
and building this like they say, and we're
doing a lot of featuring of a lot of their different units.That's
there are pack working with HS working with police officers when they're
going out for calls, that kind of stuff. Superintendent McCauley will talk
about the program overall and the four pillars they have
their Offender Management program that will be talked about as well. So yeah.
And then there's a young lady
from Brooks that's talking
about how she's using social
media in the community
and
she works  Out of the detachment, she's
not a member, but she's a civilian
and she talks about using TikTok and how she's
bringing the young people in into things that are happening in the Brooks
detachment. And there is
other speakers on restorative justice and domestic violence, the domestic
violence from  A male perspective so,
yeah, there's a there's a plethora  of
presentations
and
and
presenters. So
it is it's, yeah, we're we're
always excited it's
very nerve wracking. I don't care how  Many years you prepare and do these
kind of things, but there's
always a little
things
that come out of the closet, right? The extra costs, you know, maybe
your
AV system is out of this world. I mean, we're
just dealing with some of that right now, but but
you know, at the end of the day, we get this all together and then you kind
of go
and you put the brave face on and and
everything is fine. So yeah. 

Teresa Makarewich, VAD Program & Services Manager 

Perfect. That sounds like it's
going to be a great conference. So back to my questions. Can you give us some
history about your organization? 

Jean Botta, Alberta Crime Prevention 

Like I said, it was
started. It
was
actually started, well 1989 and it was due to crime issues at the time. And the
police and the government got together and said, hey, we're
going to, we're going to
create this, this association, so that we can talk about these issues. Well,
what they found was that you do have to include your communities because your
community  Knows what's
going on and every community is different. Not not
we, We have no community that
you can take a brush and say, OK, this is the same. This is the same. That was
when they added Alberta Community crime prevention because they found that they
had to start bringing the communities into,  into
play with what's going On and
also
 Working with them, partnering with them,
and understanding what was happening. 

Teresa Makarewich, VAD Program & Services Manager 

How does Alberta crime prevention help People in the
community. 

Jean Botta, Alberta Crime Prevention 

So when I took over it, there was a bit
of a
disarray. There not been   A lot
of like,
let's
say, work on promoting what was going on. The board consisted of a lot of law
enforcement. And so
when I took over, I saw where we needed to start helping the Community members.
When we do not have a facility where we have all these things, but we could  Also, we could be the conduit we could  Reach out to. The community and say, OK if we
have, We have, let's say break
and enters. What have you got in your community that can help these people or
how can we help you get some information awareness sessions like that set up?
So that's
how we do it. Teresa is, it's more of we're
the conduit, we're the
connector, we’re the connector with what's
going on. Or, you know, do we need to maybe have
your counsel involved here in understanding the problems or how can we also get
the RCMP more involved with your,
with your community and we have a memorandum of understanding which we, Which
was written up this past year and signed and so it's
an understanding memorandum,  MOU between
ourselves
and the RCMP in Alberta. So
we've been working very closely
with
their new branch, but prior to that we were also working very, very closely
with the RCMP as to  Hey,   What
can we do in
this? Or if there's a problem
in a
in a community, some of us Have no issues with picking up a phone and saying,
hey, how can we, What can we do different
and how can we work together and and
start bringing this Community together and strengthening the agencies or the
power within the communities. So yeah,
that's kind of kind
of how we're we are
structured and and
like I say our Conference is a big well, it's
it's
it draws a lot of people because delegates, There again we want tools and
concepts They can go home and implement. It's
nice to listen to, sometimes to a lot of theory, but we need stuff that other
communities are doing and how are they dealing with these things? So
it it
does provide that. And as the years have gone on, we have ensured that these
things are implemented into it. Our themes are in line with with our presenters
and presentations and whatever. 

Teresa Makarewich, VAD Program & Services Manager 

OK, that kind of leads into what are some of the cool
things or projects that Alberta crime prevention has done in the community? 

Jean Botta, Alberta Crime Prevention 

And this is this is a very good question. In 2019, we
partnered with Reach Edmonton Native Municipal Network and Red Deer Lacome
Rural Crime Watch For a project which we call building capacity and rural crime
prevention. We knew at the time Jan Fox and I had had a discussion about rural
crime. Like I said to her, what is rural crime? What does that consist of? We
all we all talk it, but what is it? And I had looked to see if I could find
some research, some peer review scholarly articles. I couldn't find anything.
So she had a student coming over from Spain that was going to be here for six
months and she got hold of me. And she said, why don't we see if  We could have her do an  Application send it to public safety, send it
in to the Alberta government under the civil forfeiture and see if we can maybe
get some grant process. Sure sounded good to me. We had a meeting. We met with
the Solicitor General's department and said, hey, this is what we're going to
do. Hey, they thought  This was great
stuff, so we did. We were approved under a civil forfeiture grant for $200,000
in April of 2019. We quickly Got ourselves a steering committee, which is our
decision makers. Got a an  Advisory
committee together, we met in Leduc. And what happened was the RCMP Then we
need some pilot sites because that's what our application had mentioned, Chief
Superintendent Peter Toufic from K Division was very quick to give us actually
gave us 10 pilot sites, but  We took
five. And those pilot sites were Athabasca ,Lac la BIche, Peace River, northern
sunrise, Wetaskiwin and Bisicer. And then what we did is we quickly got some
training sessions going. We did that in November of 2019 and with the, the
whole intent or objective of the project was to have one of those communities
complete or start a Community safety and well-being plan. Which did happen and  Actually, we just finished the project the end
of December. We were given one more year just due to COVID, but we had that was
an amazing, amazing experience. So we did apply for another grant to continue
this and unfortunately it was declined. But there is some, There is some
further talk going on with with what we can do so, that was to me a highlight
because it really started to highlight the work that can be done within
communities and like I say and and
there was criteria to the pilot sites like it had to be crime severity,Remote
or rural close to Aboriginal or Metis
settlement nations close proximity to a large center, which Bisecer was we
learned a lot. We made a lot of created a lot of relationships, which I mean we
still have visited a lot of these communities found  Out about these communities . And so yeah, it
was just a really, it was just a cool project. It was it Was a lot. Of fun. We
enjoyed it and it and we had an evaluation done which we which
we talked about in January with all the partners at the table, you know it was,
it was one of those things Where we really started making some inroads and some
communication and relationships with different communities. And you know,
Teresa, I was just blown away. I mean, I'm an Alberta resident, been here all
my life and you kind of think, you know, the province, right? Well, well,
here's an example Lac la Biche. When we were up there, I didn't realize like
you've got five cultures up there like you got White Russian, you got French
Canadian, you have Lebanese, you have, Metis
Settlement and then Aboriginal it's just like, wow, this is so amazing. So and
you don't even We’re task when it was really interesting to just sit around the
table and to listen to what is all going on within community. So, to me that
was a pretty a pretty cool side project. Another thing that we did like I was
saying earlier, we had our visioning session in 2020. Because as a board, we
thought crime prevention was a little too narrow, so we needed to expand this
out to community safety. We had, we're going to do It in person. And as it
happened, COVID happened. So, then we ended up doing this by zoom, which I was
very hesitant to have I thought, Oh my. Goodness. But we had an outside
facilitator. She came in all , of our board, showed up for the we did it. It
was a day and 1/2. But you know, we came away with that from that with four
objectives and just a really good sense of, OK, this is the direction we need
to go and out of that, we started one of the objectives was a new membership
model. So we had one of our actually one of our board members built a video on The
new membership model, so lots more work to do on that, but  to me it was very exciting  Just to see everyone come together and also
talk  About all the  Communities that we weren't dealing with and
that was how disabilities came into that because someone brought, brought
that up like, what are we doing with the disability communities and of course
they talked about the urban  Areas but but
it was one of the communities where there was talk about like, what are we
doing and how are we helping those people in those communities? So yeah, that
was another project that was it was very, It was very exciting and we
have now since talked about doing a further strategy later this year once the
conference is done on where we where we are and how we can go forward some
more. So yeah. 

Teresa Makarewich, VAD Program & Services Manager 

That takes me right into the next question and could you
please share your thoughts on how your organization contributes to the
disability community? 

Jean Botta, Alberta Crime Prevention 

Well, first of all, I will say that  The visioning session really made us more
aware of a lot of the communities  We
were not even thinking of -disabilities, was one ,immigrants
was another one newcomers,
right? So as far as
just
we would, that's why I
reached out or however it happened with the membership. Like let's
start to get to know each other better and understand what's
going on in the disability community, cause
I think there's a lot of
great safety tips that we can provide and even
organize some education for a lot of the groups. And also
I think fraud prevention
and this has also been raised during our fraud prevention committee meetings,
is this people that are on disability and how they're
vulnerable and they're being taken
advantage of that has
to,
we have
to
step in and just say, OK, what can we do to help this  ,either facilitate
something or Start educating or creating more awareness. And also
with our septate,
like the crime prevention through environmental design, I think sometimes
there's things we can do there as well. We don't
do it per se, but we do have people that can help with it, free Of
charge and you know, for people that are living on their own with disabilities.
Just it's
just. More
awareness in the communities and actually to be quite honest with you next year
And I've
made note of this next year at the conference, I would
and we don't know what the
theme will be yet, because that is usually decided  First of the year, I would like to have
somebody  Speak
to
this
like,
what's
the disability world? What's it like in a
day with someone with disabilities? Because I don't
think a lot of us really pay attention to it. And it's
there again. It's things we
need to deal with and just people with disabilities aren't
just in urban areas, I mean, they're in rural
areas, they're in remote
areas. They're all over. So
I think there's a lot of work and partnering that we can do between the two
organizations. 

Teresa Makarewich, VAD Program & Services Manager 

For sure. And just on that, I'll
throw a plug in that we do the accessibility coordination throughout the
province, so SAM our accessibility coordinator could help with both built
environment and policies. And then we also have an education coordinator,
Michelle, who comes out and her whole team has different lived experience, And
they teach about myths, demystifying them, disability etiquette, things like
what do you call somebody who has a disability? By their name. 

Jean Botta, Alberta Crime Prevention 

That, well, that's
great. 

Teresa Makarewich, VAD Program & Services Manager 

So yeah, so that's
the
place
that vAD is trying to help fill some of those gaps. 

Jean Botta, Alberta Crime Prevention 

Well and and
like you say, the myths, as with disabilities, as with a lot of things in life,
there's a lot of myths out there that really need to be deconstructed, right?
And people, once people start to understand it, it becomes just a different
world. So yeah, no, I agree
with you. I think it's exciting
going forward. I think there's a lot of things
that  Can be done that will benefit
everybody. 

Teresa Makarewich, VAD Program & Services Manager 

I agree. Can you tell us how someone can get a hold of
Alberta crime prevention services? 

Jean Botta, Alberta Crime Prevention 

There is a connect
line  It's
connected Alberta community crime prevention.com. Or you could reach out to
just myself, president at crimeprevention.com and I
can I can provide
those emails to you and that's probably
the
best because Diane our administrator monitors
our connect line For our e-mail all the time and myself, I am always on a
my
e-mail as well  So
in addition to other ones. So yeah, that's
probably
the
best way to get ahold of us. 

Teresa Makarewich, VAD Program & Services Manager 

OK, what is an interesting fact about Alberta crime
prevention that everyone should know? 

Jean Botta, Alberta Crime Prevention 

Oh well, we have a diverse board, which. Is
I mean  Not that unique, but
it's
it's
it's
quite different. But we also did some broadcasts Two years ago, we did one on
human trafficking. We did one on domestic violence and we did one on Drug
addiction  looking at it from an urban
and rural perspective and then to be honest with you, Teresa, we kind of ran
out of our
funding. So that's
kind of where it's staying because we were looking at doing one on disabilities.
We were also looking at doing one on someone that's
immigrated to this country  Someone that's
new. so that probably it's
an interesting fact And those three that we did do are on the on our website,
under videos or whatever. So
the other interesting
is like I said, we have the memorandum of understanding with the RCMP. So
we're working very, very closely
with
them
not so much on strategy And law enforcement But how you
build stronger, safer communities. And you know  Inspector Fisher talked about this
and he was a gentleman from Sussex, England About how he has managed to create
a lot stronger rural communities using people of influence, levering on the
existing partnerships that they have and just making everyone aware that you
have power, we just need to take that Be a citizen as opposed to being a
consumer  and I
find this is with a lot of communities They
want everybody to do things for them, but sometimes we have
to
be citizens and we have
to
take things
in
in our own hands and say no, this is what we this is what we'd
like
and this is how we're going to do
it And this is who we're going to
talk to. I think the  The Memorandum of
Understanding is I'm excited
about it because I think there's a lot of work
that we can Do to help  And even bringing
some of these farm corporations like UFA like Equus that are in the farm, they're
in the rural communities  Can help
with
with different communities and and
and
just like you say with disabilities, with newcomers with  You know,
that kind of stuff. It's not. It's
not always just about the
people that we assume in the rural areas. It's just a
bunch of farmers and ranchers and whatever, but there's a lot of communities
that have very diverse cultures and they're again, they have people with
disabilities. So, you know, what are we doing? How
can we? How can we empower that right? Yeah,
righ? 

Teresa Makarewich, VAD Program & Services Manager 

OK. Well, thank you for your time and Energy today, Jean,
your support of the community is A value to all. Alberta Crime Prevention is an
organizational member of VAD and a link to their website can be accessed on our
membership list online. Individuals looking to access VAD members can do so
with vadsociety.ca/social-action. Is there anything else you want our listeners
to know about your organization? 

Jean Botta, Alberta Crime Prevention 

Not really Teresa, so I just wanted to thank you very
much for the time to do this podcast. It's
good, it's
good PR for your organization, for my organization. I look forward to continued
work and like I say, I'd like next
year to have someone present  Maybe like
you say, someone with lived experience is just kind of going
through. And what I can do is I've got it like
I said noted, so I can reach out to your education coordinator
and we can go from there. So no, I just want to thank you very  Much for the time today. Thank you. 

Teresa Makarewich, VAD Program & Services Manager 

Perfect. Thank you again for joining today's podcast.
Voice of Albertans with disabilities is across disability nonprofit
organization, even for people with disabilities. We are guided by the
principles of accessibility, equity and
inclusion. Learn about VAD services on our website at vadsociety.ca or call
780-488-9088. For more information, if you have a topic you would like to hear
more about in a podcast, please e-mail teresa@vadsociety.ca with topic ideas,
speaker suggestions, or your feedback. Signing off for the day.  Together, We hold the Power.