THUNDER BAY – City police are helping to host a series of neighbourhood clean-ups over the next six months, aiming to create better relations within a south-side community.
Thunder Bay Police Service, through its Zone Watch program, on Thursday launched Project Footprint, a campaign in the McKellar South area, which a spokesman said he hopes will lead to positive change and have an impact on crime prevention.
Media co-ordinator Scott Paradis said there’s plenty of optimism as the program begins.
“The idea is that over the next six months a lot of community engagement activities will take place here, with the goal of trying to make a statistical, measurable difference in community safety,” Paradis said.
Even police aren’t exactly sure what it might look like at this point.
But Paradis said they have plenty of ideas.
“Ideally it will mean fewer calls for service in this area. But it could potentially mean more calls for service in this area, if we build a relationship with this community and they start calling us more when things are out of place.”
Project Footprint began on Thursday with a clean-up involving students at McKellar Park School, the first of at least eight community clean-ups scheduled between now and Oct. 3, each starting at either Dease Park or Patterson Park.
“Throughout the summer and into the fall, almost on a bi-weekly basis, we’ll be doing the clean-ups,” Paradis said.
It’s just a start of what could lead to much larger initiatives.
“That’s part of neighbourhood beautification. But also we’ll be assessing the needs of the community at those times. We’ll also be having crime prevention through environmental design,” Paradis said, adding they’ve got specially trained officers who can help in this area.
“They’re going to come down and we’re going to look and see where some of the stresses are, and try to implement ways to improve that.”
Sivanna Perry, a 13-year-old Grade 7 student at McKellar Park School, said it’s important to clean up the neighbourhood, first and foremost for civic pride.
“People can be happy to look outside. And the more litter there is, it hurts the animals,” the youngster said.
“It’s great feeling I’m helping out the Earth and making it a better place, for everyone to enjoy it.”
Paradis said police chose McKellar South because it's a medium risk neighbourhood, adding if it proves successful they may shift to higher risk neighbourhoods down the road.
The next clean-up date is June 27 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., starting at Dease Park.
The program is also supported by Eco Superior and Tbaytel.
