The Province is concluding Crime Prevention Week by once again inviting organizations involved in an array of crime prevention and public safety projects throughout B.C. to apply for grants from civil forfeiture proceeds this fall.

Details of the grant submission process – which is open from Nov. 7 to Dec. 16, 2016 – are at: http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/safety/crime-prevention/community-crime-prevention/grants

This year, grants will go to support:

• Community-led crime reduction initiatives that will support community safety efforts in the Guns and Gangs Strategy and recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Panel on Crime Reduction.
• The Vision for a Violence Free BC strategy, providing funding to domestic violence units, child and youth advocacy centres, and projects that prevent and respond to violence against women, with a focus on domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking and vulnerable women in the sex trade.
• Healing and rebuilding from trauma, crime or victimization in Indigenous communities, consistent with work pursuant to the report of B.C.’s Missing Women Commission of Inquiry and calls for action in the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
• Increasing restorative justice program capacity, including enhancing program standards, policies and evaluation tools.
• Police training and equipment, as well as an annual commitment of $40,000 to the Fugitive Return Program, which returns accused individuals to Canadian jurisdictions outside B.C. where they face serious, outstanding charges.

As in past years, the overall amount available for grants will depend on the value of cases concluded by the Civil Forfeiture Office (CFO) during the current fiscal year, with grants awarded by the end of next March.

The CFO works to undermine the profit motive behind unlawful activity by taking away tools and proceeds of that activity, with the vast majority of cases linked to drug, gang and organized crime. To date, the CFO has returned $26.1 million in grants to support anti-gang outreach to youth, prevention of violence against vulnerable women and other crime prevention projects.