Peel Region Council Endorses Updated Community Safety and Well-being Plan

BRAMPTON, ON (June 26, 2025) - Today, Regional council endorsed a renewed, collaborative strategy that sets out how partners across different sectors can work together to make Peel a safe, more inclusive, and connected community where all residents thrive. The Community Safety and Policing Act, 2019, requires that Ontario municipalities review and, if appropriate, revise their CSWB Plans every four years. Community Safety and Well-being (CSWB) Plan - a renewed, collaborative strategy that sets out how partners across different sectors can work together to make Peel a safe, more inclusive, and connected community where all residents thrive. The Community Safety and Policing Act, 2019, requires that Ontario municipalities review and, if appropriate, revise their CSWB Plans every four years.

The updated CSWB Plan establishes a structured process for working collaboratively across systems that builds on the achievements of the 2020–2024 Plan and introduces an adaptive model focused on:

• Early identification of issues before they reach crisis levels.
• Timely action by leaders to inform responses.
• Stronger connections across community networks to amplify community voices and drive coordinated and inclusive action.
• Targeted and localized responses that meet the unique needs of Peel’s diverse communities.

This model ensures Peel is better equipped to anticipate, understand, and act on the risk and protective factors affecting community safety and well-being.

Focus areas such as family violence, mental health and addictions, systemic discrimination, international students, and youth violence prevention remain key priorities for the community. By addressing the root causes of these complex issues and promoting prevention and early intervention, the CSWB Plan not only builds a safer, more inclusive, and well-supported community - it also reduces long-term costs to systems like policing, healthcare, and social services.

Since the first CSWB Plan was developed in 2020, over 75 local partners-including police, education, and health and social service providers—have worked together on its implementation. Each focus area has accomplished goals related to creating connections across service systems, identifying key community needs, strategizing collective approaches, and implementing impactful initiatives such as:

• Launching the Peel Regional Police Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) Unit at the Safe Centre of Peel to support survivors of IPV through a trauma-informed lens.
• Developing mental wellness supports such as cultural competency trainings for service providers to improve the mental wellness of newcomer youth and international students.
• Launching an interactive online forum to encourage discussions about anti-black racism, anti-Indigenous racism, and systemic discrimination.
• Engaging people with lived experience by hosting focus groups with international students to help shape Peel's advocacy efforts and ensure student voices guide future actions.
• Funding community-based youth violence prevention programs through the Building Safer Communities Fund to support initiatives such as housing subsidies for vulnerable youth and after school sports and arts programming for black youth.

Implementation of the updated Plan will occur in a phased approach throughout 2025. The System Leadership Table-co-chaired by Peel Region and Peel Regional Police along with Regional Council representatives - Councillor Palleschi (Brampton), Councillor Russo (Caledon), and Councillor Reid (Mississauga) will continue to provide strategic direction and oversight as Peel works to embed this new model across systems and services. Recognizing the importance of long-term sustainability, Peel Region continues to advocate for base provincial funding to support the implementation and operation of CSWB Plans. Securing such funding will ensure community-led initiatives have the resources needed to deliver lasting change.