Understanding Community Safety and Well-Being

For over 15 years there has been a growing movement in Canada towards what is now referred to as Community Safety and Well-being (CSWB). This important evolution originally stemmed from the discussions around the “Economics of Policing,” and drew upon research around bringing together the Human Service Agencies (including policing) to improve the outcomes for marginalized individuals/families.

For police much of the momentum came from the realization that increasingly, crime and victimization could not be addressed through the justice system alone. Despite strong police work, the cycles could not be broken without working across silos with the other health and social service agencies.

Today, through CSWB plans and approaches, there can be better synergy across the human service system, trust can be strengthened further amongst agencies, and CSWB can provide police with an opportunity to demonstrate that they are more than just enforcement.

When your only tool is a hammer, you often have no choice. For many agencies across the human services system, this is still often the challenge; with enforcement or mandated responses being the only tools available when incidents occur. However, through CSWB Approaches, agencies — including police — gain increased awareness, access, and connections to a toolbox with a much broader array of options, enabling them to intervene collectively and further upstream.

Disclaimer: The CSWB movement in Canada was created not in one instant, but over time, and has been iterated along the way. There are numerous individuals and organizations that have played a role in its development and its effectiveness as an umbrella approach, some more high profile than others.

The course highlights a number of key elements but recognizes that in order to be an effective learning tool and not overwhelm the learner, it cannot reference or cite all of the programs, initiatives, or models out there that come under this umbrella. It further recognizes that it cannot give credit to all the individuals who have been, and/or are, involved in this journey in one way or another

When you have completed this course you will be able to:

• Explain the concept of Community Safety and Well-Being
• Recognize how Community Safety and Well-Being is important to police and their related agencies and partners at a broad level
• Describe how Community Safety and Well-Being works as an umbrella approach
• Recall examples of models that fit within the Community Safety and Well-Being umbrella
• Highlight the history and origins of the movement
• Outline the theoretical foundations of Community Safety and Well-Being
• Recall how the Situation Table works at a broad level
• Define acutely elevated risk
• Describe how the Situation Table benefits communities
• Explain the evolution in Ontario, and how that evolution was a contributor to what we know now as Community Safety and Well-Being movement
• Explain what has been happening across Canada regarding the Community Safety and Well-Being movement
• Explain what is happening at a national level regarding the Community Safety and Well-Being movement
• Describe the evolution of Community Safety and Well-Being concepts on a global level
• Highlight the systems approach of Community Safety and Well-Being and how it impacts and fits with Canadian policing
• Describe how Community Safety and Well-Being is a systems-based approach
• Explain the link between Community Safety and Well-Being and the social determinants of health
• Express how Community Safety and Well-Being can help address key systemic challenges and reposition how police are viewed by many
• Explain the differences and synergies between Community Safety and Well-Being and community policing