Criminal-assets money funds anti-gang program

About $1 million raised from the sale of criminal assets is being made available to combat gang activity around Alberta, the province announced Monday.

The funds from the Civil Forfeiture Office will be provided as grants, particularly to rural and aboriginal centres with high numbers of youth at risk of falling into gangs.

“We’re taking the proceeds of crime and investing it in the important work that you do,” Premier Alison Redford told participants at the Alberta Gang Reduction Training Symposium, a three-day event in Edmonton bringing together community leaders from around the province.

Redford said the money will help with implementation of the province’s Gang Reduction Strategy, announced in late 2010 when she was justice minister. The blueprint calls for better tools for police, but also focuses on strategies to prevent young people from joining gangs in the first place.

“I wouldn’t ever suggest $1 million is going to solve the problem,” the premier said.

After-school programs and those that try to teach life and social skills will be given priority for the grants, said Darren Caul, director of the reduction strategy.

As an example, he pointed to the Parents on a Mission campaign that was recently launched in Hobbema, the central Alberta aboriginal community that has seen repeated gang violence in recent years. U.s.-based program founder Richard Ramos visited the community in November to deliver a presentation.