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POP audit assignment...

Description

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Community members Bayshore customers / visitors Bayshore mall management Bayshore security Bayshore store owners Bayshore store employees

There have been various complaints from community members regarding robberies, stolen vehicles, and youth congregating around Bayshore mall. So much so that the community members fear increased gang related activity and gun violence.

This particular problem is both a real problem, as the community members fear increased gang related activity and gun violence, but also a symptom of a bigger problem regarding the youth within the community. Accordingly, the youth in the community appear to suffer from inadequacies within their community, particularly in regard to support in their own families, knowledge of resources, resources themselves, and youth-dedicated areas . Thus, the youth turn to gangs and illegal activity to fill the void that is left by either their lack of knowledge of the resources withing their community or a general lack of healthy relationships and resources accessible to the youth within the community. Accordingly, the toxic combination of the youth’s problems and vulnerabilities in the overall design and layout of the community, leads to the increasing amount of youth crime the community is seeing.

Who: youths within the community, offenders within the community What: increased illegal activity such as robberies, stolen vehicle, and youth loitering, causing community members to fear increased gang related activity and gun violence When: unspecified times during the day, interfering with lawful use and enjoyment of the mall Where: Bayshore Mall and the surrounding area Why: due to the youth’s lack of awareness of resources available to them to help them with individual issues and offer them avenues to exert their time and energy in a more positive manner

Victim(s): community members who are mostly low-income families and use the mall as a center for many social gatherings to meet other community members and friends Offender(s): youth who live in the community, often from low-income families, who turn to gangs, drugs, and other illegal activities to occupy their time and obtain money that they don’t or cannot receive from their parents.

Situation: youths in the community are loitering in and around Bayshore Mall and contributing to criminal activity occurring at the mall such as robberies and vehicle thefts. Thus, other community members are beginning to feel unsafe as they’re fearing an increase in gang and gun violence within

their community. Accordingly, this situation is a result of the youth’s being unaware of various services and resources they can turn to for help, as well as general design miscalculations which may invite more illegal activity than what would otherwise occur.

Impact: the illegal activity and actions of the youths in the community have both physical and mental impacts within the community. Mentally, as a result of the youth’s actions, community members are beginning to fear for their safety and well-being at Bayshore Mall and within their own community as they fear an increase in gang-related activity and gun violence. Physcially, this may cause community members to avoid the mall and surrounding area all together, taking away from their overall sense of security and quality of life. Furthermore, the illegal activity and actions of the youth could have an impact on future youth within the community, who, as children, begin to view the behaviour as normal and acceptable, creating a never-ending snowball effect of criminal activity within the community. Seriousness: the problems created by the youth within the community are very serious due to both the physical and emotional impact of their actions. Their actions physically cause damage both to property and the day-to-day lives of community members, mentally, their actions can be considered more serious as it may cause irreparable damage to the mental health and wellness of community members. Consequently, the seriousness of their actions increase as community members begin to fear being out in the community, and inevitably, the seriousness of their crimes increases simultaneously. Complexity: the problem itself is very complex because the exact root of the problem isn’t one specific element that can be easily repaired. The illegal activity of the youth can be linked to a insufficientcies in knowledge of resources, resources themselves, organized activities, supports, and dedicated areas for youth. Furthermore, design and layout elements within the community, and Bayshore Mall, increase the likelihood of crime, providing youth with the opportunity to engage in criminal activity. Solvability: this particular issue although very complex, has a chance of solvability because the actions of the youth can be directly linked to insufficiencies within their community. Accordingly, once each insufficiency is addressed, in regard to both the youths as well as the environmental elements, there is a strong possibility that the issue at hand could, as a result, be solved. Eliminate: opportunities for the youth to commit criminal offences through the alteration of environmental elements such as the lack of sufficient lighting, insufficient surveillance, poor maintenance, high number of entrapment areas, and poor sightlines. Reduce: the rate of criminal activity and level of fear within the community through the implementation of various strategies and tactics which seek the help of various affected persons including community members, mall security, and mall management, among others, to work in unison with community resources to address and solve the problems at hand within the community. Reduce harm or impact: through the implementation of various strategies which aim to both address the rise in criminal activity as well as the increasing fear embodied in community members. Effectivelly, these tactics will address the fear through implementing various security features including an increased number of cameras, emergency alert stations, signs indicating the mall security’s phone number, and natural surveillance tactics. Combined, these elements will reduce the harm that’s caused by the increased criminal activity by addressing the fear that community members are feeling.

Redefine responsibility: through the implementation of supports and resources within the community, the responsibility of controlling the youths within the community shifts to the community itself. By providing the community with their own resources, members will feel empowered to enact change using these resources to address the root of the problems and help youth within the community excel in their own lives.

Responses Social Development / Environmental Design / Information & Education: Unfortunately, many individuals within the Bayshore community face poor or sub-par social determinants of health, as they reside in a low-income neighbourhood. Accordingly, social determinants of health include anything associated with economic stability, the community context, the environment, health care, and education. Thus, if a group of people, like the youths within the Bayshore community, are faced with poor social determinants of health, their health would evidently suffer, which leads many individuals, including the youths, to turn to a life of gangs and violence or have a general poor quality of life and high victimizaiton rate. That being said, social development aims to, in the long-term, improve the social determinants of health in order to reduce the possibly of victimization, in this particular case, the sort of victimization the youths in the community face when they fall victim to gang and street life. Therefore, if long-term strategies for social development are put into place within the Bayshore community, the rate of crime and gang violence within the area would diminish due to the improved social determinants of health leading youths down more positive life paths. Correspondingly, to do so, various multi-disciplinary efforts within the community must work together to create more positive opportunities for the vulnerable youth within the community using short-term strategies with long-term effects. For instance, to improve the social determinant of education, the community can work with various organizations such as the boys and girls club of Ottawa, to provide educational resources such as tutoring and homework clubs, to help the youths improve academically. In doing so, the youths in the community may develop strong skills in various areas which can lead them down paths of higher education, as opposed to paths riddled with violence and gang associations. Furthermore, in regard to the social determinant of health care, resources, specifically to address mental health related issues, must be made readily available to all individuals within the community, to allow them to seek the help they need, when they need it, which in turn, can reduce the rate of crime associated with poor mental health or addiction problems. As one of the main root causes of the problems that the community is seeing, is a lack of support for youths in the community, the implementation of accessible mental health programs within the community could be crucial in creating positive change and addressing the problems within the community. As a result, youths specifically, may no longer feel the need to turn to gang associations in order to gain a sense of belonging or support when faced with issues in their lives. Moreover, the social determinant of environment could be addressed through environmental design changes to the Bayshore area. Changes can include improved lighting, improved or regular maintenance, the implementation of emergency alerts stations, increased security measures, and helpful signage in

and around the Bayshore mall area. In doing so, a sense of ownership is created, which can lead to both a reduction in the rate of crime as well as an increase in more positive use of the environment and neighbourhood. Evaluation To evaluate the results of the implemented strategies, we must turn to those who were originally affected by the problems, gatekeepers including community members, Bayshore security, and Bayshore mall management to ask for feedback on the success of the strategies. Accordingly, asking the gatekeepers questions relating to their satisfaction, sense of safety, thoughts on the differences or lack thereof, and opinions on the overall effectiveness of the solution. Furthermore, other methods that could be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the solution can include an analysis of the number of calls for service received for the Bayshore area, and, in the long-term, analysing the graduation rate at nearby secondary schools. In order to be effective, this initial evaluation should be conducted six months to a year after the implementation of the solution, allowing for sufficient time to see changes but not too much time that, if the solution was ineffective, the problem would become out of control. Subsequently, after documenting the assessment for future reference, any changes seen as necessary or beneficial for the community should be implemented and re-evaluated at a later date. Specifically, officers should be vigilant in identifying and documenting the best strategies used in this particular solution, in doing so, the best strategies could be used as a basis for similar problems faced by other neighbourhoods. Effectively, this can create general guidelines for officers when dealing with specific issues in problematic neighbourhoods, allowing them to come up with a solution and a place more efficiently and effectively....