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Medicine Hat Police eager to put victims of crime funding to good use

Oct 22, 2018 | 1:05 PM

 

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Medicine Hat Police are praising a move from the province that will see funding for programs related to victims of crime increased.

On Friday, the provincial government announced they would be adding another $4.5 million to their Victims of Crime Fund, to be spread across seven communities.

Medicine Hat will be one of those centres, as funding has been doubled for Medicine Hat Police’s Victims Assistance Unit from $150,000 to $300,000 per year over the next three years.

Program coordinator Nathalie Castets said it’s news they’ve been waiting on for a number of months.

“We’re pretty excited about the announcement,” said Castets. “We’ve been waiting for a little while to hear about it. And when it came finally on Friday, we were quite ecstatic.”

The additional funding will allow the Victims Assistance Unit to promote a part-time worker to full-time, bringing their group to three full-time employees.

Castets said their unit’s purpose is to provide emotional support to those who have been affected by a wide variety of crime, along with directing victims on how they could receive financial support.

“We assist victims with paperwork when they’ve been a victim of a crime in Medicine Hat and try to guide them through the justice system as easily as we can, because sometimes it’s a really scary situation,” she said.

According to Castets, their unit assists victims of crime for everything from thefts and robberies to more serious crimes such as assaults and homicides.

Along with Friday’s announcement, the provincial government also said more money will be made available to help victims of domestic violence, with details to be announced in the coming months.

Castets said with this money, they’ll be able to help those people in the community who need it the most.

“It’s really needed,” she said. “So many people go through a variety of different things, and knowing that there’s funding and programming and enhanced services available to them, it means a lot.”

Funding will also be increased for Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer, Grande Prairie, Lethbridge, and the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo.