Keeping Guelph Safe ... Together.

Members and the Community

Proceeds of Crime Grant - Guelph Police Service Application
The Proceeds of Crime grant is being provided by the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services to fund activities aimed at crime prevention and reduction for a term of approximately one year. The Guelph Police Service made a successful application for grant funds for a project titled A Family-Centered Approach to Substance Use and Crime Prevention: Strengthening Families for the Future & Families and Schools Together. 
The grant money the Service has secured will be used to fund two programs aimed at enhancing protective factors against crime among youths and their families. The grant money has increased accessibility and sustainability of these two programs, which have been researched and found to be successful, evidenced by enhanced community and family relationships and communication among participating families. 

The Service will be supporting community partners in conducting these programs. The GPS has been and will continue to work with the Wellington-Guelph Drug Strategy Committee and other community partners including Family and Children's Services, Public Health, Family Health Teams, Wellington County Social Services, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, and Family Counselling and Support Services for Guelph-Wellington.

Families and Schools Together (F&ST)
Working to improve relationships between youths and their families and school networks, the Families and Schools Together program aims to help youth succeed by bolstering their social safety net and thereby reducing the potential for at-risk behaviours. 

The major benefits that have been seen from this program include:

• enhanced family functioning
• prevention of abuse and neglect
• prevention of drug and alcohol abuse in the family
• reduced stress for families in their daily lives
The children's families, schools, and community professionals and volunteers work together through a series of meetings to carry out social activities and learn about healthy family functioning. 

Contact Info:

Kate Power
Family Counselling and Support Services for Guelph-Wellington
Phone: 519-824-2431

Strengthening Families for the Future 
The Strengthening Families for the Future program is for parents and caregivers and their children aged 6 to 12. During the 14 week program, families work together to enhance skills in parenting and family life, communication, problem solving, anger management and other areas of family functioning. The program includes individual sessions for parents and children, followed by a family session. The program is free for participants.   

Strengthening Families is a powerful family change program because it involves the whole family, not just the parents and children alone.

The goals of the program are to:

• Improve family communication
• Increase positive and effective parenting skills
• Increase children's resilience and life skills, including communication, resisting peer pressure, recognizing feelings and solving problems. 
At the beginning of each session, parents and children meet together to share a meal. The meal is followed by separate one-hour sessions for parents and children. Finally, the families come back together for a family session, where they practice skills they learned in their separate sessions. The sessions are fun and activity-based. For more information, please view the Poster  or Brochure.

Contact Info:

Lindsay Klassen
Interim Coordinator
Wellington-Guelph Drug Strategy
519.821.6638 x 350
lklassen@guelphchc.ca 

This project has been made possible by a grant from the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services. 
Views expressed here are of the Guelph Police Service and do not necessarily reflect those of the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services.