Earlier this month, I had the honour of participating in the 11th Annual Community Police Consultative Conference: Creating Opportunities through Youth Leadership in Community Safety.
Engaging youth in community policing is an important component of building genuine police community partnerships. In fact, inclusion of youth in these committees is required by the Toronto Police Services Board’s policy on community consultation. We believe that involving youth in these partnerships is critical for making our communities stronger, healthier and more vibrant. Young people constitute a very important part of our neighbourhoods and communities. I believe strongly, that without their active and meaningful involvement, our effort to build community partnerships will remain incomplete.
Based on the level of participation I observed, the conference clearly gave everybody an opportunity to explore issues of vital importance, and to develop effective methods of problem-solving and decision-making. The issues covered ranged from bullying to cyber culture to community engagement.
Thanks to all of the conference participants and congratulations to the organizers for a very successful conference on a most relevant topic.
