Pubdate: Sun, 22 Aug 2004
Source: Kamloops This Week (CN BC)
Copyright: 2004 Kamloops This Week
Contact:  http://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1271
Author: Jeff Hodson

TEAM TACKLES CRIME HEAD-ON

A group born from last month's community meeting about drug use and the sex 
trade on the North Shore is looking for a made-in-Kamloops solution.

"It's not going to be one thing that cures it all; it's going to be a 
multitude of things," said Trevor Jensen, head of the Kamloops Community 
Action Team that's one of the partners in the newly formed committee.

"There might be things we try that might not work. And we'll try something 
else."

The North Shore Community Working Committee (NSCWC) consists of service 
providers and community groups and represents a trimmed-down version of the 
interested parties involved in the July 21 community meeting. They met for 
the first time on Thursday.

"The bigger picture is dealing with the issue itself. Not just shuffling it 
around, but trying to come up with some solutions," said NSCWC chair Ray 
Jolicoeur.

The committee will involve neighbourhood residents and will work to develop 
action plans to deal with the diverse - and sometimes nebulous - issues 
that beset the North Shore.

Residents often see issues - and potential solutions - "outside the box," 
and clear of the structures that often cage institutional workers, 
Jolicoeur said.

The most refreshing thing that arose out of the first community meeting, he 
said, was the compassion that residents had for sex trade workers.

People realize that street workers are human beings and that prostitution 
cannot be punished out of them.

"They don't want it in their neighbourhoods, but they also know that in 
order to solve a problem they have to be part of the solution. And I think 
they are willing to do that."

"They don't think that someone's going to come in and solve the problem for 
them," Jensen said. "It's their neighbourhood, it's their issues."

In addition to dealing with the sex and drug issues of the North Shore, one 
of the possible outcomes from the committee's work is the formation of 
neighbourhood associations. The associations would work to represent the 
neighbourhood issues with the city.

Another more "optimistic" outcome is a made-in-Kamloops model that can be 
implemented in different parts of the city should the problems resurface.
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D