Being and feeling safe and included

Sense of belonging

• 54% of adults have a strong or somewhat strong sense of community belonging
  Source: My Health My Community Survey, 2014 External website, opens in new tab

Sense of safety

• 65% of adults agreed or strongly agreed that they felt safe walking alone in their neighbourhood at night
  Source: My Health My Community Survey, 2014 External website, opens in new tab

Reported crime rates

• As of 2017, Vancouver’s violent crime rate was 7.6 per 1,000 population
• As of 2016, Vancouver ranked 8th among the 10 largest municipal police forces in Canada for lowest violent crime rate 
• In the same year, the property crime rate was 60.5 per 1,000 population
  Source: Vancouver Police Department, Crime Statistics External website, opens in new tab
• In the same year, Vancouver ranked 10th among the 10 largest municipal police forces for lowest property crime rate
  Source: Incident-based crime statistics (Statistics Canada) External website, opens in new tab

1. Offer opportunities to improve competencies to work effectively with First Nations and Urban Indigenous communities.
   • Results: We will develop greater understanding and capacity to respond in a positive and proactive manner when working with First Nations and Urban Indigenous people, working toward reconciliation and healing from the negative impacts and stereotypes that resulted from Canada’s residential school system
2. Develop and deliver broad-based training to enhance capacity when addressing conditions, particularly trauma, that create vulnerability (including for example gendered violence, newcomer settlement, sex work, mental health & addictions, and dementia).
   • Results: We will develop greater understanding and capacity to respond in a positive and proactive manner when working with newcomers, people engaging in sex work, suffering from mental health & addictions challenges, dementia and people faced with gender based violence.

Indigenous awareness and training

In March 2016, our City Leadership Team completed a half-day Indigenous Awareness workshop at the Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre.

Since 2015 just over 700 Vancouver Police Department staff and 600 City of Vancouver staff have taken part in Indigenous awareness training, as part of our efforts towards reconciliation.

Taking steps to better serve people living with dementia

We partnered with the Alzheimer’s Society of BC to develop training that will help City staff better serve people living with dementia.

The Vancouver Fire Department has also committed to developing the training in an online e-learn format in 2017. As part of this process we have created a video with the Alzheimer’s Society of BC called “Jim’s Story,” which illustrates the experience of a person who lives with dementia.

Learn about our Age-Friendly Action Plan

Awareness training for sex work and sexual exploitation

We have worked in partnership with Living in Community since 2012 to deliver training designed to build individual and organizational capacity to best respond to the health and safety needs of sex workers in Vancouver.

This training has been provided to front-line and managerial staff from:

• The Vancouver Public Library
• Parks and Recreation
• Property Use Inspections
• Non-market Housing

The commitment to ongoing training helps to counter the stigma that increases the marginalization of sex workers and develop non-discriminatory and effective responses.

The training’s principles of inclusion, equity, and respect have laid the foundation of many of our initiatives, including the West End Sex Workers Memorial, a commemorative lamp post installed to honour the lives of sex workers who were adversely affected by municipal actions in the mid-1980s. We also publically acknowledged responsibility for the displacement of the West End sex workers that led to severe conditions of vulnerability, stigma, and harm.

Review our action plan on health and safety for sex workers