In May 2010, FYI witnessed some of the detrimental effects of Toronto Police’s “Project Corral” raids on the minds of our community’s youth. The wide sweeping net cast during these raids led to some innocent members of the community, especially young people, being wrongfully subject to suspicion and criminalization. The often contentious relations between youth and the police are escalated by incidents such as these raids. FYI felt that considerable efforts need to be undertaken to develop a positive and constructive policing system that recognizes the challenges that youth from marginalized communities face and works to support them through the challenges.

FYI intended to have this dialogue of advocating for a more community and culturally conscious policing system to transpire at a provincial level. Therefore, we reached out to OPACY to further develop this conversation; they were eager to support this endeavour. Together we have reviewed recommendations from various reports and documents that will inform further conversations with other youth stakeholders. These include promoting cross cultural training, community policing and education for youth in the criminal justice system.

Recently, FYI and the Advocates Office brought 20 youth from across the province together for a monthly dialogue about interactions between police and marginalized youth. These dialogues have been formatted into 5 sessions over the course of six months.

The youth will be establishing collaboration with service providers and support staff who will be mentors and advocates.

There are three components we aim to explore as a collective group: individual, community and provincial approaches around advocacy strategies and community policing.