How can Indigenous communities reclaim their safety?
Rooted in a Northern Indigenous worldview, the Indigenous Community Safety Partnership Program offers a transformative approach to community safety, emergency preparedness, and justice through the revitalization of Traditional Law.
The story:
In 2015, Kwanlin Dun First Nation (KDFN) contracted Gina Nagano of the House of Wolf to develop an alternative approach to community safety and preparedness. Outcomes included a community-engaged safety assessment and plan, and an Indigenous Community Safety Officer (CSO) program. The results were transformative; 94% of surveyed citizens reported feeling safer in their community because of the Community Safety initiatives. Proactive intervention through Indigenous-led community programs reduces costs to police, emergency services, and child welfare. For example, calls to RCMP from KDFN citizens declined from 1076 to 666 one year after the implementation of the Community Safety Officer program. CSOs trained in community connect citizens to wrap-around wellness services and prioritize the wellbeing of women, children and elders. This breaks the cycle of inter-generational trauma by providing support when it is needed most, and represents an alternative to the mainstream justice system’s focus on punishment of criminals over recovery and care of community.
In March 2022, the Indigenous Community Safety Partner Program won a $500,000 Arctic Inspiration Prize to develop Indigenous-led training, certification and mentorship program that is designed to help Yukon First Nations address the root causes of inter-generational trauma, violence and vulnerability.
Join us in this session to learn about Community Safety Officers and the Indigenous Community Safety Partner Program from Gina Nagano.
About the speaker:
Gina is a Tr’ondek Hwech’in First Nation Beneficiary & Citizen of the Wolf Clan from Dawson, Yukon and presently resides in Whitehorse, Yukon. She retired from her first career as a police officer with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and has approximately 35 years in the justice field. In 2018 Gina was awarded the Yukon Minister of Justice Community Safety Award for Outstanding Program for her work developing the Kwanlin Dun First Nation Community Safety Officer Program. She has served on diverse Boards as either Director or Chair-person.
In 2020, Gina received a Notable Innovators Award for her significant work in implementing Community Safety Officer Programs and Crime Prevention through environmental designs in many First Nation communities across the Yukon.
Gina founded Shezho Zhur – House of Wolf and Associates consulting firm to take a holistic and community-led approach to justice- she believes that justice is an integral part to the wellbeing of a community and it cannot be separate from Gina’s work of innovating and recreating the justice process in First Nation communities’ is having an incredible impact on both individuals and communities in the Yukon. Gina is also an entrepreneur and owns several businesses in the Yukon and British Columbia.
Gina is currently working towards her Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Community Economic Development through Cape Breton University.
To learn more:
House of Wolf: https://houseofwolf.ca/
Arctic Inspiration Prize: https://houseofwolf.ca/arctic-inspiration-prize
Media article – “Former RCMP officers reflect on how to fix policing in the North”: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/indigenous-rcmp-policing-north-1.5654513
For more information please visit www.preparingourhome.ca and for any questions please email [email protected]