I was pleased to read about Victim Services, an important program that works closely with the TPS and the TPSB, in today’s Toronto Star. Earlier this week I had the privilege of speaking at the Chief's Gala in support of Victim Services. Here are my remarks.
Good evening.
On behalf of the Toronto Police Services Board, I am delighted to join all of you in this event to raise vital funds for an organization which, every day, works to support one of the most important groups in our midst, victims of violence and crime, and their families.
I am pleased to be joined by my colleagues, Vice Chair and Councillor Pam McConnell, who is here representing Mayor David Miller, Ms. Judi Cohen and Mr. Hamlin Grange.
For the Toronto Police Services Board, the work of the Victim Services Program of Toronto is of great importance. It constitutes a key plank in our vision of community safety. Community safety requires a multipronged approach including robust policing to deal strongly with perpetrators of violent and criminal activity, preventive interventions to build community capacity in the face of threats to social wellbeing, and, equally critically, meaningful and effective support for those individuals, groups, neighbourhoods and communities who suffer in the aftermath of violent and criminal acts.
The responsibility for carrying out this last piece falls largely on our Victim Services Program. It is a heavy burden, which, since 1979, the staff and volunteers of this organization have carried with tremendous caring, sensitivity, dedication and commitment. And they continue to do this on a budget that can only be described as modest and, even, precarious.
There are few services, as important as this, which provide the value for money that Victim Services does.
It is due to the responsiveness to evolving community needs as well as the resolve and resourcefulness of this agency’s Board, staff and volunteers, that a limited financial base has not kept it from doing important things. Today, it provides an impressive range of services to individuals, families and communities. These services reflect the important recognition that it is not individual members of a family alone who suffer when violent, criminal acts take place. There are times when an entire community is affected.
Through programs and projects like the Victim Crisis Response, Domestic Violence Emergency Response, Support Link, Victims of Gun Violence Response, Project PAIN to assist victims in high crime communities and Project TEAR, Victim Services fulfills its goal of restoring, rebuilding and enhancing victims’ quality of life, and preventing revictimization.
And it meets this goal through an impressive Volunteer Program. Volunteers donate in excess of 25,000 hours every year. It is indicative of the agency’s understanding of what it takes to serve all residents of this City that it has made a serious effort to enhance its cultural competency. With volunteers who come from many ethnocultural backgrounds and possess a combined ability to converse in 30 different languages, the organization is able to provide an inclusive program.
For these reasons, the Toronto Police Services Board is an avid and vocal supporter of the Victim Services Program. Last year, cognizant of the severe financial constraints faced by this critical service, the Board provided Victim Services with funding in the amount of $100,000.
I am grateful to the Province and the City for recognizing the importance of Victim Services by increasing their share of funding and providing additional financial support for specific programs.
And I want to thank all of you for your ongoing contribution, not only because of the money that you provide, which is critical, but also for the vote of confidence that it represents. And that is extremely important.
So, once again, on behalf of the Toronto Police Services Board, I would like to say a big and very sincere thank you to all of you.
