The Voice - Jean Bota with ACCPA

Join Teresa and Jean as they discuss the ACCPA - Alberta Community Crime Prevention Association. Learn about their resources, what they do, and upcoming events.

Transcript

Teresa M, VAD Program & Services Manager

Welcome to the voice of Albertans with Disabilities podcast for February 2025.My name is Teresa Makarewich your host and VAD’s program and service manager. Thanks for joining us today. Voice of Albertans with disabilities gratefully acknowledges that what we call Alberta is the traditional and ancestral territories and gathering place for diverse indigenous peoples whose histories, languages and cultures continue to influence our vibrant communities. We make this acknowledgement as an act of reconciliation and gratitude to the many First Nations, Metis settlements and the six regions of the Metis nation of Alberta and Inuit who have lived in and cared for these lands for generations. Hiy Hiy. 

VAD has been talking with local agencies to learn about the resources available to the disability community. In today's podcast, we'll be talking with Jean Bota from Alberta Community Crime Prevention Association. Their goal is to ensure safety to Albertans with their communities through education and crime prevention awareness. They are the connector between rural and urban communities and agencies and promote community safety and well-being. When communities are connected, engaged and empowered, they have a sustainable community where everyone is safe. Everyone has a sense of belonging and everyone has access to services. Hello Jean.

Jean Bota, ACCP Executive Director

Hey, good morning, Teresa. Good afternoon.

Teresa M, VAD Program & Services Manager

Thank you for coming on the podcast to discuss your organization. Together we hold the power. It's been over a year since we last talked and I'm excited to hear what's new with your organization. Can you tell us about yourself and what your role is at the Alberta Community Crime Prevention Association?

Jean Bota, ACCP Executive Director

Thanks, Teresa and thank you very much  for you and your membership to take the time to find out about us. This past year has been very eventful. I am now the executive director with Alberta Community Crime prevention and this past year we did  A total restructure of our organization and by the structure I mean we submitted we first of all did some discussion with the government. We kind of tested the waters and then we did up a proposal which would give us more capacity and a few more paid positions. We wanted to change our  We were more or less a working board, so we wanted to go to more of a governance board. The working board is OK, but it it puts a lot of stress and strain on on board members from their working  other jobs. So we did the proposal. Went into the government. It was approved in March of this past year, and we got our funding as of December. Pardon me, April 1st. Made a big difference, but it has been a lot of work and so what we did initially is once we got the funding. We arranged with Doctor Thompson.  Doctor Tom Thompson to do a foundational governance session because we had to explain to our board how things were changing and where they were going to land. We did that in Edmonton. It was very successful, so immediately after having our discussion with Doctor Thompson, we began. Our reorganization of what we needed to do. With. With the governance in August of that same year last year, we had our strategic plan and that was again facilitated by Doctor Thompson. So, he knew our governance model and he then knew Where we were looking to go. So, in a strategic way, so that has all come together. We have a business plan that has been done in draft, has been sent out to the, to the board members and will be ratified at our February 20th board meeting, so. We are really on the go with a lot of our programming relationship building. Now that we have some . A few more paid positions we have. We also included in that was a bookkeeper. So that. She has come on side, so there's been a lot of work done in the last the last year and we have another position that will be we're just looking at  Short listing some of the names it was out for advertising short listing the names and doing some interviews and that will be effective as of April the 1st. So, we have had a very busy year and we're on the go with what we need to do within the province. So, and what the province has done in this in 2022, they legislated community safety and well-being plans through the police act. So, this we've been asked if we would take a lead on helping communities  Design create community safety and well-being plans. But also, you need to educate people on what a community safety and well-being plan is because A lot of communities really don't understand it. And so, there's we've got a lot of work cut out for us. But Teresa  where we wanted to go. We knew that there was a much bigger picture, and we could not even with our conference. Was getting the budgeting was getting way out of hand like we we couldn't. Sustain ourselves with this being a working board like it had to, we had to really relook how we were doing things. Yeah, it was. Actually, it's been. It's it's been good, yeah.

Teresa M, VAD Program & Services Manager

Wonderful. So, let's take a step back a little bit. And for those who are listening and don't know, can you tell us who Alberta Community Crime Prevention Association is as an organization.

Jean Bota, ACCP Executive Director

It is a provincial board 15 board members. We began in 1989 as a it was between the police and the government. And as they got into their work, they realized there was crime issues in communities. And they did. Then discovered wow, we better bring the community into the fold here. So, our name was amended in 1990 to Alberta Community crime prevention. So, prior to that, we were Alberta crime prevention. We, like I said, we're a board of 15 members from  Around the province. Various sectors are involved with our board membership. And we have a probably our biggest event every year is our conference. And that issue will be held in Edmonton May 5th through to the 7th. We have one day of pre-conference workshops which this year are very exciting and then we have two days of conference. So, the pre-conference is Retail crime and gangs and guns. And then there is a session on community safety and well-being plans and how as communities we can involve members of the Community, not just the police have to be involved, but it also has to be agencies. Institutions, community members, service clubs, all this kind of stuff. Yeah, so that. That, and we also Co-chair the fraud  prevention month we have. That's part of our mandate with the government. And we have a committee of there's about 20 plus people on that. So it's different organizations, groups, whatever they start meeting the end of October and it all leads up to fraud Prevention Month, which is March the 1st. so There's kick offs in Edmonton, there's kick offs in Red Deer  and there's a kick off in Calgary this year as well. So that's kind of our job in a nutshell. We do have a membership with our Re-organization. We're looking to reassess the members membership asking the membership. What could we do better? What could we change? What needs to be modified that that kind of? Just a a real total reassessment of where we're at, so yeah.

Teresa M, VAD Program & Services Manager

Interesting. You've kind of touched on this, but what is the organization's mission mandate or vision?

Jean Bota, ACCP Executive Director

With our restructuring and our new governance, our mission is bringing agencies and citizens together to build safer communities.

Jean Bota, ACCP Executive Director

Our vision is Alberta Community crime prevention aspires to be a leader in mobilizing diverse partners and resources to ensure safe and vibrant communities. And out of our session, we also came up with their values being collaboration, community, knowledge, innovation, creativity, integrity and trust. So we our mission statement did not change, but we we did revise our vision and we did add to our values when we had our foundational governance session.

Teresa M, VAD Program & Services Manager

Great VAD just changed our mission values and and vision as well. That's that's a new direction that we're headed.

Jean Bota, ACCP Executive Director

Excellent.

Yeah. Well.

Jean Bota, ACCP Executive Director

And and you know, I think we need to do that every once in a while as you it just just like you do in your household every once in a while, you have to take a relook and. Hey I've got to change something here, right or move The furniture or do whatever.

Teresa M, VAD Program & Services Manager

Exactly.

Jean Bota, ACCP Executive Director

I agree.

Teresa M, VAD Program & Services Manager

What does  your organization do in the community.

Jean Bota, ACCP Executive Director

Were a conduit between a lot of agencies and communities, we have a lot of communities that reach out to us for assistance. They may have issues that are going on and this is rurally or urbanely and they would like some assistance with what they can do about the issue. The other thing is we have a lot of communities that reach out to us with fraud prevention techniques or what. Can do or how they can solve things we have? Have communities reach out to us. About how can we involve citizens on patrol or what's our options out there? So, There's a lot of as we're getting more and more known. There is a lot of people that are turning to us and saying, hey, where can I find this or what can I do? So also, what is going on is we have looked, we are looking at redoing our website. So we would have a portal  For members, resources, that sort of thing, they would go in, find what they needed to find and and and that. And that’s like a living document, it continue. It grows right. Not stagnant. Yeah, that's right, exactly.

Teresa M, VAD Program & Services Manager

OK, what are some of the projects that you've done in the last year?

Jean Bota, ACCP Executive Director

I would say probably our biggest project is, I don't know if I mentioned this last year. We are involved with the citizen Lead Group, which is comprised of real Crime Watch citizens on patrol Crime Stoppers and ourselves. This was initiated through K Division and the idea of this is to make a very strong, sustainable group that goes out in the province with One message, and everyone is on the same page.

We have Four very strong  Crimewatch groups in this province, we are one of we are actually the only province in the country that has such a that has four groups that are very, very strong, very, very involved. And so, over this last year we  With this group with us participating also and it's it's everyone involved, there has been a lot of movement with coming together as one and making sure our message is the same. And we have a meeting actually next week it will be virtually, but it's we're wanting to discuss governance and strategic plan because. It is four groups that have, each has its own agenda, its own mission, but also we all have the same objective. And that's for the safety of Albertans, regardless of who and what you are. So yeah, that's probably been our biggest project this year is there's been a lot of work done with that as well.

Teresa M, VAD Program & Services Manager

If I were to refer a client to your organization, what services would they be able to access?

Jean Bota, ACCP Executive Director

They could access membership, which would give them a discount on the conference. It would also give them tools and resources that they could we would provide to them. It would provide mentorship. We also reach out to communities. And and help a lot of communities with different things that are going on. We also connect. Citizens with a lot of the different crime watch groups, Alberta systems on patrol Rural Crime Watch Crime Stoppers, that's they've really they've really revised. I wouldn't say they revised, but they're really coming into their their own in Alberta. Yeah. Yeah. And there's a lot of people that don't. They even don't  Know a lot of these groups exist, you know it's. Right, yeah. So that that would be kind of where we're at as we. We want to there again assess our membership and assess what more we can assist with.

Teresa M, VAD Program & Services Manager

Can you quickly just run over your important dates again? You had something on March 1st and then the conference May 5th to 7th.

Jean Bota, ACCP Executive Director

Yeah, March 1st is our March. The whole month of March is your fraud prevention month. There's a kickoff in Edmonton May 3rd and there's a kickoff in Red Deer. I'm not sure on the date when that is, nor am I sure of the date in Calgary, but those will be. Kind of. Stay stagnated. Not everything is on the same day which they used to do. And yeah, and we also have a lot of other little communities that like to have fraud prevention months. So we either like to expand or maybe advertise that on our website or through our social media sites or conference. Year is May 5th. Through 7th and is at the DoubleTree by Hilton, which is on the West End of Edmonton. So far, we've had very good response, but we have a nice line up of presenters. Our theme this year is building bridges between to empower and make safer communities. Teresa, that I'm just kind of that's off the top of my head. I would have to go to the website and just there is a there is an official theme. So, all of our presenters have aligned with that  Theme, like I said, we've got gangs and guns for the workshops. There’s 4 presentations within that one day. Retail crime. The retail crime initiative. And then we've got the community safety and well-being and from the aspect of how you could involve your communities. So yeah, some really good line up. So, and we have a networking session on. The May the 6th . It's from 4 to 7, so it's a networking session for the delegates and whoever we charge $50 for it. And yeah, so we have. We have quite a line up, so it's it's coming together well and talks on homelessness. Talks on mental illness. There's talks on addiction, a lot of community safety and well-being things, so which all goes with your social determinants of health, more or less, right? Things Are evolving so. This is kind of interesting. There's a group that has started an initiative  with gender based violence and it involves 3. 2 ones out of Cochran. One is out of Cochran and 1 is out of Okotoks. Then one out of Calgary  So actually I'm really looking forward to hearing that. Yeah. There's a lot of really good presentations. So, if any of your Members are interested, please reach out. I don't know if you guys are interested. In in being an exhibitor, we are certainly. Open to you guys being there because it might be there again. A good way to advertise and and to promote yourself.

Teresa M, VAD Program & Services Manager

Yeah. And if you shoot me some information, I can put it in our newsletter and on the blog.

Jean Bota, ACCP Executive Director

Yes, I know I won't do that.

Teresa M, VAD Program & Services Manager

Awesome. How does someone get A hold of Alberta Community Crime Prevention Association.

Jean Bota, ACCP Executive Director

You can get hold of myself, executive director at albertacommunitycrime.com, or you can go through our website at connect@albertacommunityprevention.com. And everything goes to our administrator, Diane, or what she does is she just shares stuff with myself. And then we we reply. And also, Teresa, I would like to, we have had a lot of volunteers recently and I don't know if anybody in your membership is interested in volunteering. We have a short little Application on the website that you can go in and fill out and  Everybody has skills, so we're just looking to encourage people to volunteer and to come on the side. We would appreciate that.

Teresa M, VAD Program & Services Manager

Great. What is an interesting fact about Alberta Community Crime Prevention Association that everyone should know?

Jean Bota, ACCP Executive Director

Oh, I don't what it is. I looked with that, and I thought. What is an interesting fact we've been, so we have. Oh, here's here's something. We're making a lot of inroads with post-secondary like we have a partnership with the U of C. So, this would be the 6th year we've had this partnership. So, they have their social development, 591 class has a, he calls for a project at the end of the term. So every year we get our application, we submit it. We've never had any problems with being denied, but we make a presentation. So, what we the Have the students do the university students do is design and build  our conference for the following year. cause our venues are always booked the following year. And so that has become a real  Fun thing it's. So, what they do is they look at emerging trends. They then they give us 3 themes and they also, with those emerging trends, what they do is they research speakers, presenters that would align with that. So, what they do then is in April, when they're done, their term at the April board meeting, we have them  Present their project. Last year and the year before, we took a lot of material out of what they had provided. So last year what we decided to do was to to allow these students to be involved with our Conference Planning Committee, so they. They see how this stuff gets implemented. They Learn about budgeting. They learn about crime prevention community. Yeah they learn about safety. And they see it being and then to the point where it's operational. So, we have picked up there again a lot of volunteers with that and there again we assume everybody knows what crime prevention is. Or what Community safety is and and I always ask the students. Why did you pick this? And a lot of times, they'll say because we didn't know what community safety and well-being was or we didn't know what crime prevention was. So, it’s a really good way to get people involved and we've really made a nice it's a nice relationship that we have with them. So, at this year's conference, there is a professor that's talking From the u of a don't know if it's the criminology department. Somebody said they don't have that anymore. Anyway, she is their in their sociology department. I have reached out and asked her if we could. Discuss or meet because while we're in Edmonton, I would maybe there's a project we can do also with with the U of A. I guess that is an interesting. It's just something that one of our board members started many years ago and it's continued and now we've developed this relationship with the students and. Fulfilling to see? Well, first of all, the youth have a different perspective. A lot of things and they love being. They're very good at technology and it's just nice to hear their perspective and how they look at these things, right. So yeah. Yeah. So that would probably be an interesting fact about us.

Teresa M, VAD Program & Services Manager

Very interesting.

Yep.

Teresa M, VAD Program & Services Manager

Well, thank you again for your time and energy today, Jean. You're a part of the community as of value to all. Is there anything else you want to say today that I haven't asked you?

Jean Bota, ACCP Executive Director

No, I just wanna thank you very much for taking the time to do this podcast. Think it's very important that we, We work together with other groups and we get no. And not only does it help us, but it helps you guys because this is posted on our website. We distribute this to our membership and we put it out. No, thank you very much, Theresa.

Teresa M, VAD Program & Services Manager

You're welcome. Thank you again for joining VAD’s podcast, Voice of Albertans with disability is a cross disability nonprofit organization of and for people with disabilities, guided by the principles of Accessibility, equity, inclusion. Learn about VAD’s services on our website at vadsociety.ca or call 780-488-9088 For more information. If you have a topic or suggestion you'd like to hear more about in a podcast. Please e-mail vad@VADsociety.ca with topic ideas, speaker suggestions or your feedback. Signing off for today. Together we hold the power.