The Windsor Police Service is partnering with the Windsor-Essex Children's Safety Village to launch a new youth engagement program.
The YES! program, or Youth Empowerment and Safety Initiative, aims at building healthy relationships among youth and police officers in the city.
Chief Al Frederick says programs like this are a tool for crime prevention now and in the future. "Anything we're involved in it's basically that, building safer communities and crime prevention. We've had great success here with our relationships with the youth. Our crime rates involving youth have dropped dramatically and we like to think it's because of our strong presence in the schools."
Windsor police received a $100,000 grant from the Ministry of Correctional Services to launch the program. It will be used to run workshops and recreational activities through the Children's Safety Village.
