A police program delivered to elementary school students for an entire generation is no longer available in Barrie.
The VIP (values, influences and peers) program is gone and in its place is a pilot program called Inside Out.
It is part of a large reorganization of the Barrie police schools programming that has also resulted in the removal of officers from area high schools. Those four officers are now part of the new community safety and well-being team focusing on broader societal issues that intersect with the law.
“This is definitely one of the most significant revamps of a school program,” Barrie police Insp. Val Gates told BarrieToday.
The two special officers working with elementary schools are now delivering the Inside Out pilot program.
“What we’re trying to do is develop programs that we can measure the success of or the effectiveness of,” Gates said. “We now know that Project DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), which is something from years past, wasn’t really helping children.
“We just want to make sure that we’re delivering the most effective program that we can. And the only way we can do that is to deliver something that is measurable," she added.
Inside Out follows guidelines from the chief medical officer's recommendations for youth programs and Ontario's Safety and Wellbeing Framework, according to a police report presented recently to the Barrie Police Services Board.
High schools will also be served differently by police as the local force focuses on wider community concerns.
Historically, officers were assigned to appear regularly at the city’s high schools and respond to any calls for service. Now officers will be available when needed. In addition, a school portal has been created to connect schools with local community supports.
“We’re working to develop a model of policing that addresses the high harm area and the high harm communities, areas within our service” while increasing efficiency, Gates said.
A new community engagement team is designed to address issues contributing to social disorder within the community homeless, mental health and addictions. The community safety and well-being team also oversees identified issues in schools with an eye to addressing them broadly in that particular school.
The closure of schools during the pandemic provided the force with the opportunity to utilize the four members of its community services unit in a more innovative approach, the police services board heard.
“We also need to understand that there’s a huge, huge concern in our community around mental health, homelessness and addictions and those qualities are different,” said Gates. “This is the team where you might find officers that are a little more empathetic or a little more understanding of trauma.
“This team will look at alternate solutions to those that are committing crimes, low-level crimes, because of things like addictions and mental health,” she added. “So we did pull them from the schools to focus on this, because our community is really struggling right now. … But we are being very careful that we’re not taking anything away from the schools that need to still exist.”
A pilot was initiated last summer with the unit’s official launch expected in two weeks.
Gates said the members will be reaching out to all community agencies to address concerns collaboratively. She sees a future in which this group of officers work hand-in-hand with individual workers from local agencies.
