To help educate youth and to fight the lure of gangs and gang violence in British Columbia's communities, the Province is providing $1.12 million in additional funding to expand the Expect Respect and a Safe Education (ERASE) anti-bullying program.

The Province is funding new, collaborative interventions that will help connect vulnerable people to the services they need by providing the City of Surrey with a $175,000 grant for a pilot project to enhance community response to the overdose crisis.

As part of a strategy to address gang violence and make communities safer, the British Columbia government will invest $500,000 from civil forfeiture grants into anti-gang programming for youth in Surrey, Mike Farnworth, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General, announced today.

Promoting safety in relationships and a violence-free B.C. are goals of new learning resources the Province is piloting in schools in Surrey, Delta and Chetwynd, toward making final versions available to all B.C. school districts by the end of the year.

The Province, anti-gang units and local police continue to make progress with work underway on B.C.’s $23-million expanded Guns and Gangs Strategy.

It won’t be an easy ride, but for a select few who are ready, a new program will give adults looking for a way out of gang life the tools they’ll need to find meaningful employment, build strong family and community connections and shake their gangster identity for good.