Peel's Community Safety and Well-being Plan
Mental health and addictions advocacy
With partners, we provided recommendations for the Ontario 2023 Budget to improve our community's mental health and addictions system.
Peel's Community Safety and Well-being Plan (2020-2024) sets out how partners across different sectors can work together to make Peel a safer, more inclusive, and connected community where all residents thrive.
Over 25 organizations, representing emergency services, education, health and social service providers and governments, came together to develop the Plan.
- Vision: Peel is a safe, inclusive and connected community where all residents thrive.
- Mission: We will work together to ensure access to services and supports that advance safety, connectedness, and well-being for all Peel residents.
Focus areas
While the plan recognizes there are many issues that impact community safety and well-being, 3 areas of focus have been identified:
- family violence
- mental health and addictions
- systemic discrimination
The Plan remains flexible to respond to emerging issues in the community that have been made worse by COVID-19.
The Family Violence Action Table includes community organizations, local municipalities, and police. Partners collaborate to:
Create and strengthen pathways to safety
Family Violence Action Table Collaborative Forum
Family Services of Peel hosted an in-person forum bringing partners in the sector together to strengthen collaboration and support dialogue. Attendees discussed various issues, including adapting to change, best practices, innovation, training, resourcing needs and more. As a next step, the action table will work to take the insights and learnings from the forum and make recommendations to advance shared goals.
Intimate Partner Violence Unit
Peel Regional Police’s intimate partner violence unit, in the Safe Centre of Peel, provides survivors with a range of services, including childcare, mental health support, and access to a food bank.
Photovoice research project
Led by Trillium Health Partners, the photovoice research project focuses on co-designing better services with input from people who have witnessed or experienced family violence. The project team also includes local organizations and researchers.
Increase awareness and public education of family violence
Annual public education and awareness campaign
To raise visibility, help identify, and reduce cases of family and intimate partner violence in our community, Peel Region in collaboration with Brampton, Caledon, and Mississauga is now in the third year of a public awareness campaign. The most recent 'Break the Silence' campaign, focused on violence against women and gender-based violence. It's part of a multi-year strategy co-created with community partners to eliminate family and intimate partner violence in Peel.
Learn more about Family and Intimate Partner Violence.
The Mental Health and Addictions Action Table includes organizations that provide mental health support, community agencies, youth-serving agencies, and police. Partners collaborate to:
Improve access to mental health and addictions services for youth by simplifying pathways to care and coordinating efforts
Funding advocacy efforts
The Mental Health and Addictions Action Table is asking the Ontario Government to:
- Ensure provincial health human resource policies and compensation practices build a strong mental health and addictions workforce.
- Increase mental health and addictions funding to meet community needs and tackle crisis-level demand.
- To address Peel's drug toxicity crisis, provide sustained funding and approvals for consumption and treatment services.
Access the submission.
Peel Region partnered with Canadian Mental Health Association and EveryMind to launch a social media campaign. This campaign is part of a renewed advocacy strategy endorsed by Peel Regional Council, calling on our provincial partners to provide funding that will address inequities impacting mental health and addiction services in Peel.
24/7 Crisis Walk-In Design Model
The Canadian Mental Health Association Peel Dufferin and partners are designing a 24/7 walk-in model to make it easier for people get care when they're experiencing a mental health or addictions crisis.
Co-designing mental health care photovoice project
The Mental Health and Addictions Action Table is collaborating with the Family and Child Health Initiative at Trillium Health Partners on an arts-based research project working with young adults, family, caregivers, and service providers to improve mental health care.
Peel situation table
Peel Regional Police and over 40 agencies, including Peel Region are part of the Peel Situation Table, and help to identify individuals, families, groups, or places where there is a high likelihood of harm or victimization taking place. In 2022, the Table worked through over 100 situations of elevated risk, 19% of situations involved 12 to 17 year olds, and 11% involved 18 to 24 year olds.
The top 5 risk factors included:
- Diagnosed mental health concern
- Antisocial or negative behaviour
- Housing
- Parent-child conflict
- Person unable to meet own basic needs
The Systemic Discrimination Action Table includes community organizations, local municipalities, school boards, police and more. Partners work collaboratively to raise awareness of systemic discrimination, share anti-discrimination practices within their organizations, and work to address inequity in our community. Partners are working to:
Publicly review, develop and sustain anti-oppressive and equity practices and policies in Peel
Systemic Discrimination: Collective Action Now Forum
On February 22, the Regional Diversity Round Table and partners hosted a forum, bringing local organizations together to share learnings, progress, and challenges in advancing equity and addressing systemic discrimination within organizations. As a next step, the action table will work to take the insights and learnings from the forum and make recommendations to advance shared goals.
Implement effective data gathering and reporting practices to assess impact and respond to inequities as they emerge
Disaggregated Workforce Assessment Tool
The Regional Diversity Roundtable and partners have developed a data-collection tool to help local organizations collect equity-related data on their workforce. Collecting this data is an initial step that organizations can take to address discrimination and enhance equitable practices. The action table is currently analyzing the data collected to date, while assessing the tool for ongoing improvements.
The Building Safer Communities Fund is supporting community-based prevention and intervention strategies to tackle youth gun and gang activities in Peel.
Learn more about the Building Safer Communities Fund.
Details about the Plan and how it was developed. Available in different languages.
While Peel Regional Council is responsible for preparing and adopting the Plan, it's being developed, with, by and for the community. Over 400 individuals and 25 organizations shared their voices and experiences to inform the development of the CSWB Plan over a 2-year period.
We can't police our way out of what are ultimately social, not criminal, problems. Poor social conditions that are at the root of poor outcomes must be improved if any positive change is to be sustained. Partners in government, health, social, policing and justice services, recognized early on the need to work together and focus both on prevention and intervention in a balance approach.
Peel's CSWB plan will be reviewed annually and updated every 4 years.
Community consultation
Ensuring the community's voice and experiences are reflected in the Plan is a priority. Over 400 people were engaged, including those from 219 service providers and organizations, through:
- 40 interviews
- 13 youth consultations
- 12 family consultations
- 22 service provider consultations
- Action tables and working groups
Participants were also asked to share their stories in whatever format they wished. The stories were insightful, passionate and profound.
Access the following resources:
Stakeholder agreement
In February 2021, partners signed the stakeholder agreement to demonstrate a commitment to the Community Safety and Well-being (CSWB) Plan, which harnesses partners' collective and collaborative action to ensure Peel is a safe, inclusive and connected community where all residents thrive.
Background
As legislated under the Police Services Act, 1990 and in the new Community Safety and Policing Act, 2019, once in force, municipalities must prepare and adopt a plan.
The plan is guided by the Ministry of the Solicitor General's Community Safety and Well-being Planning Framework, which defines community safety and well-being as the ideal state of a sustainable community where everyone is safe, has a sense of belonging, opportunities to participate, and where individuals and families are able to meet their needs for education, health care, food, housing, income, and social and cultural expression.
If you are in need support, access the following: