Prince George’s Standing Committee on Public Safety will hear from three delegations at its next meeting on Tuesday, June 17.
On the agenda are representatives from the Prince George Native Friendship Centre’s Crisis Response Community Led program, St. Vincent de Paul and the Prince George Regional Correctional Centre.
Presentation slides from the CRCL program say that it’s a peer-assisted mobile crisis response service that send teams of two people with lived or living knowledge to assist those experiencing mental health or substance use crises.
Created in the 1980s, the St. Vincent de Paul Society provides meals, hampers and clothing to people in need in Prince George, also operating a thrift store.
Slides from the group’s presentation set to be given by executive director Bernie Goold show that the organization served 86,377 meals with a monthly average of 7,198 in 2024.
It also provided 2,593 emergency hampers, 4,630 fruit and vegetable hampers, assisted 117 new families, assisted 289 seniors and had 15,422 volunteer hours in 2024.
Representing the correctional centre will be warden Treena Barkto, Jason Hascarl of the Repeat Violent Offending Intervention initiative (ReVOII) and Craig Somerville of the Integrated Transitional and Release Planning (ITRP) program.
Overviews of the ReVOII, and ITRP programs as well as the work of the local Community Transition Team will be provided to the committee.
Rounding out the agenda is a letter from committee member John Zukowski asking his colleagues to review the progress of several files they’ve been working on including the downtown security camera pilot project, the possibility of downtown security patrols and the need for a local mental health and addictions treatment facility.
The meeting will kick off at noon in the second-floor conference room at Prince George City Hall.
