Gun violence Forum reports provide a ‘roadmap for urban safety’

A more integrated approach to tackling gun violence might be the solution.

That’s what the consultation reports released by the city of Montreal, the SPVM, and the Institut du Nouveau Monde on Monday seem to indicate.

The reports detail the major findings of a Forum that took place this past winter on fighting youth violence –and highlight specific measures to implement them.

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Four main commitments

All community and institutional partners involved have agreed on four common commitments to ensure safety in Montreal neighbourhoods and reduce gun violence:

• Constant consultation with each other;
• Share useful information in a timely manner to prevent violence;
• Adopt and promote a global and integrated approach to prevention and train and equip workers accordingly;
• Prioritize initiatives that strengthen a sense of belonging to a community — as well as prevention and interventions with high-risk youth.

Rapport INM Forum SPVM on Scribd

Another possible Forum in 2023

A monitoring committee will be set up to monitor the progress of the commitments and properly measure the impact of each action.

Building on the success of this first Forum, a second is scheduled to be held in 2023.

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“The Forum was a unique opportunity to bring together different areas of expertise around the same table to share possible solutions and identify concrete actions to take,” said Montreal’s head of public security within the executive committee, Alain Vaillancourt. “With these three reports, we now have a roadmap for creating a Montreal model of urban safety.”

Montreal has seen an uptick of gun violence lately, many incidents involving young people.