On patrol, we’re like goodwill ambassadors. We want to get back that feeling of living together as a village.
James Favel, executive director of the Bear Clan Patrol,
After fleeing Syria to settle in Winnipeg early this year, Mannan Hamrasho was beaten and robbed, his children bullied at school, and his new home tagged with racist graffiti.
A neighbour, James Favel, got word of the incidents. He rushed over with a gift basket of treats and colouring books for the children, and the promise of a better Canadian welcome. The Hamrasho family is now under the protective care of Favel’s Bear Clan Patrol, a community organization taking the neighbourhood watch to a new level.
Following our neighbours to the south, Canadian neighbourhood watch groups started forming in the 1970s as a means of crime prevention. Designated residents called police when they spotted vandals or thieves. Today, crime rates are falling on average — 29 per cent lower than a decade ago — so you might assume the need for watch groups would dwindle. Meanwhile, other social challenges are increasing: an aging population, more immigrants and refugees acclimating to new culture, and youth and family homelessness.
Today, watch groups that form new mandates can be even more neighbourly.
The Bear Clan Patrol was founded in 1992 to address violence against Indigenous women in Winnipeg’s North End, an at-risk neighbourhood. Since 2015, Favel and others evolved the patrol mandate. The group is now a welcome wagon, resource service, cleanup crew, conflict mediator and youth organization all in one. Their most recent event was an open house for new Canadians, including the Hamrasho family.
“On patrol, we’re like goodwill ambassadors. We want to get back that feeling of living together as a village,” says Favel, executive director of the Bear Clan Patrol.
When patrollers encounter someone in need — any need — they act as a link to community resources. Favel tells us they’ve connected homeless individuals with housing and employment services, addicts with rehab facilities, and even helped citizens get enumerated to vote.
Along their routes, Bear Clan members pick up trash, particularly used drug paraphernalia. Since this past spring, Favel estimates his teams have collected more than 3,000 discarded needles.
All of the patrollers are volunteers who receive instruction in physical and mental health first aid. A few are also trained in non-violent conflict resolution. A local paramedic service was so impressed with Bear Clan’s work it donated a defibrillator — and the time to teach members how to use it.
Youth under 18 cannot join Bear Clan’s evening patrols for safety reasons, so the organization runs “mock patrols” for young people. These daylight excursions with elder Bear Clan volunteers provide lessons in street proofing and drug awareness, and give youth a chance to become part of the fabric of their community.
“I have 14-year-olds who want to spend their evenings with Bear Clan when they turn 18, instead of going to bars,” says Favel.
Your community may not face the same intense challenges the Bear Clan handles in Winnipeg. Still, there are many ways for a creative neighbourhood watch group to make a difference — shovelling snow for elderly neighbours, delivering meals to exhausted new parents, or welcoming an immigrant family.
That’s what watching out for each other really looks like.