A new committee, made up of youth from across the city to advise the police, signalled its official launch by sharing its accomplishments over the last four months with members of the Police Services Board.
At a recent meeting of the board, members of the Ottawa Police Service Youth Advisory Committee, described how they plan to help Ottawa police relay messages of personal safety to youth across the city.
Jessica Ripley, a strategic youth program specialist with Ottawa police and the official staff support member for the fledgling committee, says she hopes the group will eventually serve two purposes.
The first, Ripley says, is to provide Ottawa police with insight into youth culture and trends in order to ensure police messages of crime prevention and personal safety reach the intended audience.
“The other purpose is to be a voice for youth in the community around ideas they might have, concerns they might have. They can bring it forward to our youth advisory committee, and then our youth advisory committee can bring it forward to Ottawa Police Services,” she says.
The idea to form a committee to work with Ottawa police was conceived after an event last year that was meant to foster communication between the youth of Ottawa and police. The “Let’s Chat Youth Café” workshop was held last October at the Nepean Sportsplex.
Twenty people were chosen from more than 200 applications, submitted to Ottawa police by youth aged 13 to 24, by a selection panel of police, a youth-agency representative and a youth.
Maddie Brown says she joined the committee because she wants to provide a connection between youth in Ottawa and the police.
“I’ve always wanted to go out to schools and do presentations, and kind of be the connection point,” Brown says. “But there was never really a way to get that started, so when I read about the opportunity to join, I was like yay.”
Jennifer Koivula, another committee member, says she would eventually like to pursue a career in law enforcement, so volunteering was a natural move.
“I do want a career in policing, that’s what I’m aiming for, and I know that a lot of youth are the people that I’m going to be dealing with on a day-to-day basis,” Koivula says. “I want to learn to connect with them better, understand them better and overall make a difference.”
Since the committee’s first meeting in June, its 20 members have been hard at work creating the group’s image, raising awareness and being trained in public relations and how to deal with youth. They’ve been developing their committee’s image and mandate, while also trying to present themselves in an appealing way to the rest of Ottawa youth.
With an annual budget of $4,000, the committee plans to continue creating awareness of the group throughout Ottawa, as well as promoting youth events in the city.