future trades for nvit PAGE 5
2014 year in review page 7-18
sports year in PICTURES PAGE 21
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MERRITT HERALD THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
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Permanent shelter a 2015 priority for CPO By Emily Wessel the herald
newsroom@merrittherald.com
Merritt’s Community Policing Office gets busier with each passing year, and 2014 was no exception. Armed with a mandate to promote crime prevention strategies, CPO co-ordinators Kelly Donaldson and RCMP Const. Tracy Dunsmore have a hand in running dozens of community programs. “It’s such a grey area because really, you can make anything fit in crime prevention,” Donaldson said. Some of the initiatives that fall under the crime prevention umbrella are community youth events, social development programs, and traditional crime prevention programs such as Block Watch. One of the CPO’s biggest undertakings is the emergency cold weather shelter, which operates from November to March. Securing funding for that shelter was one of the CPO’s successes for 2014, Donaldson said. However, proving to funding sources that Merritt benefits from a shelter each winter is a double-edged sword for the CPO: the need for funding also shows there’s an ongoing, long-term need for warm and safe places for those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness to sleep. The CPO works with the Nicola Valley Shelter and Support Society to operate the shelter, and the two organizations have shared a goal of establish-
ing a permanent shelter in Merritt since they began. That’s a goal they’ll carry forward into 2015. One success with no caveats for the CPO in 2014 was helping Big Brothers Big Sisters establish a part-time program co-ordinator in Merritt rather than having someone from the Kamloops chapter come down when needed. Big Brothers Big Sisters operates a mentorship program and is one of many CPO programs geared toward youth. Some of the other successes in 2014 were the Kidz Tri It Triathlon, which saw over 80 participants in its third year; Smart Step expanding to include Bring Back Play, a joint effort with Participaction to reintroduce kids to traditional playground games; and the CPO’s second annual Youth Celebration Night, which recognized 30 young people for their contributions to the community. Smart Step also parked a painted piano at Spirit Square over the summer, which was available to passers-by to play. “That brought a lot of positive attention to Spirit Square,” Donaldson said. “People would walk by and notice it and use it, and it did exactly what it was supposed to do.” She said they plan on bringing the piano back to Spirit Square in 2015. Returning volunteers to Smart Step allowed that program to be somewhat self-sustaining this year, Dunsmore said.
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Community Policing Office co-ordinators Kelly Donaldson (left) and Const. Tracy Dunsmore talked successes from 2014 and looked ahead to their goals in 2015 with the Herald. Emily Wessel/Herald
Volunteer retention overall was another unqualified success for the CPO in 2014. About 21 volunteers have actively worked with the CPO continuously since it opened in 2007, Donaldson said. “Year-in, year-out, the same core group of people committed their time to whatever program fits with their needs and wants,” she said. One such volunteer, Pat Lunzmann, expanded her Speed Watch program to incorporate a Cell Watch in 2014. She was recognized for her crime prevention efforts at a Ministry of Justice ceremony in October.
LOOKING AHEAD Youth engagement will continue to be a top priority for the CPO in 2015, the co-ordinators said. Connecting youth and seniors is one of the goals for the new year, and that could include a mentoring program. “Seniors have skill sets that our youth aren’t even taught anymore, whether it’s knitting or fly-tying or card making,” Donaldson said. “We’re always looking for positive role models. Everybody has something to offer.” They also plan to revive their efforts to run a mountain bike day camp for youth who wouldn’t
normally have access to that equipment. Volunteer recruitment and community collaboration are also on the agenda for 2015. Donaldson said she’d like to do more presentations to increase awareness and education in the community and have more partner groups emerge with ideas for grassroots programming. The co-ordinators said they’d also like to put their Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) training to use as well. CPTED is a multidisciplinary approach to crime prevention that’s used in dozens of countries by
police forces, municipalities and even architects. CPTED can range from small-scale design elements, such as use of lights and lines of visibility, to indirect crime prevention strategies such as the Spirit Square street piano. “Public space allows for people to interact and get to know your neighbours, and in the long run, it kind of prevents crime because you know who’s in your neighbourhood and you’re talking to them and you know when somebody’s around that shouldn’t be or something’s going on that shouldn’t,” Dunsmore said.
See ‘Spirit Square’ Page 2
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