Edmonton Drug Treatment & Community Restoration Court

It is vital to inform, engage and mobilize the people of the Edmonton Capital Region, and the myriad of agencies and interested groups and individuals to work with and support the EDTCRC. Aboriginal residents provide a significant example of the need for this mobilization, involvement and cooperation. Edmonton has a significant aboriginal population, with an estimated off-reserve population of some 41,000 individuals. Aboriginal Albertans are over-represented in the criminal justice system, in Alberta jails and prisons. The issues and challenges faced by Edmonton’s aboriginal residents are of specific concern to the Edmonton DTC Steering Committee. Poverty is another concern, and linked in part to drug dependent lifestyles. In 2002, an estimated 18% of Edmonton children lived below the poverty line. (Statistics Canada, Income Trends in Canada, 2002). As the harmful links between drug dependence and poverty are successfully separated, through programs incorporating restorative justice and community and personal rehabilitation, the Edmonton program will make inroads into the child poverty problem. The Strategic Planning Committee (the community advosry body to the Progam) together with the Program Management Committee and Working Groups founded to provide collaborative management of the EDTCRC Program, and in particular the communication, treatment, rehabilitation, after care and restoration activities provided to program participants, will, together with the Court and governmental actors, work together to make the Program serve Edmontonians and the larger Capital Region in the most effective and outcome-driven manner.

 

There are many programs to deal with social problems and help people in need. Edmonton abounds with such programs. The EDTCRC is a vehicle for coordinating the efforts of social welfare agencies, public health services, poverty programs, assisted housing, centres for support and care of disadvantaged and abused individuals with participants in the Edmonton Program. The community mobilization initiative associated with the EDTC Program will strive to achieve coordinated and inter-agency responses, based on the principles of therapeutic, restorative and community justice. One example is the brand new Edmonton Urban Aboriginal Accord Initiative. The other feature of the EDTCRC that will assist in achieving these goals is the intended strong partnership with interested community residents, public interest groups, Churches, and other stakeholders.

 

Community involvement in the EDTCRC is particularly important to address the gaps in service experienced by drug-dependent offenders, to promote inter-agency and community-government cooperation, and to ensure equal access for special groups, specifically women and aboriginal people. The Toronto DTC program has employed a community advisory group, and found it to be very helpful.

The Strategic Planning Committee is the primary linkage from the Court and the DTC Program to community organizations and citizens and to advise the governing bodies on matters relevant to the EDTCRC. Based on the Toronto DTC program experience, the following draft expressions of the goals and mandate of the Strategic Planning Committee are presented for discussion purposes: