MacKinnon, Shauna

Silver, Jim

WinnSpace Repository

CCPA-MBFAST FACTSCanadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Mb • 309-323 Portage Ave. • Winnipeg, MB • Canada R3B 2C1ph: (204) 927-3200 • fax: (204) 927-3201 • ccpamb@policyalternatives.ca • www.policyalternatives.ca/mbOctober 27, 2005        RESEARCH * ANALYSIS * SOLUTIONSThe public outcry and media coverage followingthe tragic shooting of Philippe Haiart has resultedin Winnipeg inner city issues being framed in away that is less than useful. We should be look-ing at these issues quite differently.The better lens through which to interpret Mr.Haiart’s death focuses our attention on the manypositive, community-based solutions that havebeen and are being developed in Winnipeg’sinner city. If supported consistently over time,these offer the best hope for the future.Yes, there are problems in the inner city, andthey are serious— gangs, drugs and violencebeing the most obvious. But the inner city is notjust problem-laden; it is also, and importantly,hope-filled.For the past quarter century specially-designedtripartite investment programs— the Core AreaInitiatives I and II, the Winnipeg DevelopmentAgreement, and now the Winnipeg PartnershipAgreement— have, their various faults notwith-standing,  led to considerable public investmentin Winnipeg’s inner city. This investment hasfunded a great deal of creativity and innovation,leading to the development of  very large num-bers of  community-based organizations that arenow highly effective, and to the emergence of astratum of exceptionally talented inner city com-munity development practitioners.  These people,and the  community based organizations theyhave built, are changing Winnipeg’s inner city forthe better.In the Aboriginal community, for example, a highlyeffective and uniquely Aboriginal form of  commu-nity development has emerged through the effortsof exceptionally skilled Aboriginal practitionerswho have built and are working with such commu-nity based organizations as the Urban CircleTraining Centre, the Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre,and the Native Women’s Transition Centre, toname just a few. Rooted in the understanding thatcolonization has caused enormous damage tomany Aboriginal people, these  organizationsapproach their work in a holistic way, attendingsimultaneously to the need to heal individuals, tocreate healthy communities, and to build an or-ganizational infrastructure run by and for Aborigi-nal people.In the past eight years or so inner city communitydevelopment work has been stepped up a notchwith the creation in a number of neighbourhoodsof community development corporations (CDCs),which take a more comprehensive approach toneighbourhood revitalization and which engageinner city residents in working to build  their ownhome-grown solutions to problems.  The work ofthese CDCs has been significantly advanced byWinnipeg’s Inner City:Invest in Prevention, Not DetentionCanadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-MBCanadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-MB309-323 Portage AvenueWinnipeg, MBCanada R3B 2C1ph: (204) 927-3200   fax: (204) 927-3201ccpamb@policyalternatives.cawww.policyalternatives.ca CCPA-MB FAST FACTSThe Fast Facts are produced and distributed free via e-mail.They can be reproduced as an OpEd or opinion piece withoutobtaining further permission, provided they are not edited, andfull credit is given to both the author and the source, CCPA-MB.Please contact the CCPA-MB today to begin your freesubscription.CAW 567the core funding provided to them by the provincialgovernment’s Neighbourhoods Alive! program, andby some funding agencies, most notably UnitedWay of Winnipeg and the Winnipeg Foundation.The funding is not enough, but core funding hashelped. The result is that housing is being reno-vated, community gardens are being created,youth programs are being established, and in anumber of neighbourhoods— Spence and WestBroadway are examples— a turnaround is underway. Large numbers of  residents feel that life inthese neighbourhoods is better now than it wasfive years ago.  A new sense of hope is emerging.In the North End a group of gang members ap-proached the North End Housing Project sayingthat some of their members were being releasedfrom prison and others wanted off the streets, butnobody would hire them. ‘Can you help to get usjobs’, they said. The result is a small program, thathas gang members working with two Aboriginalcarpenters and an Aboriginal supervisor. Theyoung men renovate dilapidated housing, whilelearning various life skills and being introduced toand practicing  their culture. The program is work-ing. There has been no recidivism.  Person byperson, house by house, hope for a better future isbeing built.Many of the people who are angered by PhilippeHaiart’s death want immediate solutions. There areno immediate solutions.  The misplaced search forthe quick fix almost invariably leads to the call tohunt down the bad guys and throw them in jail.But this solves no problems. The jails are alreadycrammed with gang members, and the problemspersist. There is no quick fix.There are solutions, however. The solutions arebeing implemented daily by  the highly skilledcommunity practitioners and the innovative pro-grams and organizations that have emerged in thepast quarter century in our inner city. It is, in manyrespects, an exciting and positive place, filled withcreativity and innovation and patient, hard-earnedgains.This is the better frame through which to view theinner city. It is better because it enables us to seemore clearly all that is going on— the good as wellas the bad—  and to see that there is hope, if onlywe will choose to build on all that has beenlearned.What the rest of us need to do is to support theseremarkable inner city initiatives and people. Thebest way  to do this is to demand— with all the furyand determination expressed by so manyWinnipegers angered this  past week by a youngman’s tragic death— that our governments  investin those home-grown, community based  solutionsthat have a proven track record of success.Yes, there is despair in the inner city. Lots of it. Butthere is hope too. We should be building on thathope, not fuelling the despair.- Shauna MacKinnon and Jim SilverShauna MacKinnon is the Director, and Jim Silver aBoard member, of the Canadian Centre for PolicyAlternatives-Manitoba. They are among the authors ofThe Promise of Community - Led Renewal, State ofthe Inner City Report 2005. The report will be releasedto the public on Monday November 14th at 10:00 A.M.at Dufferin School, 545 Alexander.This article first appeared in the Winnipeg Free Presson Wednesday October 26th, 2005

Winnipeg's Inner City: Invest in Prevention, Not Detention

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Winnipeg's Inner City: Invest in Prevention, Not Detention

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