Beaver County Victim Services is set to officially dissolve in August of this year, but president Jim Warren says despite this, they will still remain a society.
“Our board has decided that we’re going to remain as a society. We won’t have contact with the victims but we will continue to fundraise for projects. When other agencies who provide services for victim services such as FCSS (Family and Community Support Services), want to have, for example, a workshop for mental health, then they will be able to apply to us for some funding.
That’s what our plan is right now,” he said.
The province is creating a new way of providing victim services, eliminating the need for local boards and instead dividing the whole province, excluding major cities, into four regions: Western, Eastern, Central, and Southern Alberta.
“The government has decreed this is going to happen. We didn’t feel it necessary, at least for our location. I know there are some locations that don’t have a unit as good as ours. They have some issues but our opinion, the board, is the suggestion to work on fixing those ones, don’t tar everybody with the same brush. But no, they’ve come and said, ‘this is the way it’s going to be.’ And although they’re great with consultation now, the decision was made before they started the consultation.
“I think they’re going to take the community out of victim services. The community was a very big part of our victim services. Our community took ownership. And that was one of the things that I said: you won’t have a viable victim service unit if the community doesn’t buy in. They have to feel ownership, and feel part of it. I don’t see that happening with the new revised regional victim services,” he said.
The implementation of the regional model is set for April 1 and came about as a result of a review done by MLAs Angela Pitt (Airdrie) and Nathan Neudorf (Lethbridge East) in 2019. In a document published by Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA), called Victim Services Unit Regionalization: RMA Concerns, it says that in the review three new approaches were given, but no consideration was taken for keeping the current model.
“In 2019, the GOA (government of Alberta) launched an MLA-led Victims of Crime Review, which aimed to identify specific gaps in services and supports available for victims of crime within the current model. One aspect of the review focused on the victim services model. The review suggested three possible new approaches to victim services governance and delivery (zonal approach, government approach, and municipal approach). The review did not consider a continuation of the current model.”
“The review was done by two MLAs out of Airdrie and Lethbridge, both large municipalities. In my opinion, I don’t think they understand rural victim services when they came up with their perspective on what should be done,” Warren said.
RMA describes service delivery in rural areas as innovative out of necessity, and laments the fact that the trend seems to be centralization and standardization of how services are delivered.
“Alberta has a unique model in which victim services are delivered by local organizations funded through a combination of provincial grants, municipal contributions, and tireless fundraising by local volunteers. Unfortunately, the GOA is moving forward with a regionalization model that will replace local victim services units with four service delivery regions,” the documents says.
RMA members have advocated for the current model of victim services to be maintained, suggesting that the GOA should focus on the communities that are struggling instead of revamping the whole system.
Kari Janzen
Staff Reporter
