Community Safety and Well-Being Plan

Niagara's Community Safety and Well-Being Plan, 2025-2029 is all about making our communities safe and healthy. Our approach to tackling social issues is to involve the whole community.

Complex problems that affect our safety and well-being can't be solved by just one group or organization. By working together with different groups like police, paramedics, education, health care, social services and community agencies, we can help prevent these problems before they happen.

The Community Safety and Well-Being Plan, first launched in 2021, is now being updated. The refreshed plan reflects the progress made, the lessons learned over the past four years and our ever-changing world. It's guided by ongoing community input and lived experiences. The updated plan focuses on strengthening how we work together to improve safety and well-being in Niagara.

Goals

Our goal is to work together to:

  • Address the root causes of complex social issues
  • Strengthen the foundation for well-being and safety in Niagara

Benefits

The Community Safety and Well-Being Plan has a range of benefits for local agencies, organizations, frontline service providers and residents, including:

  • Enhanced communication and collaboration among agencies and organizations
  • Increased understanding of local risks and vulnerable groups
  • Ensuring services are given to individuals with complex needs
  • Increased awareness, coordination and access to services for community members and vulnerable groups

Key drivers of impact

  • Build strong partnerships: Work with local organizations, businesses and residents to build supportive relationships that help tackle community challenges together
  • Invest in communities: Focus on finding extra resources to support community projects and programs that help people. This ensures resources go where they're needed most to improve well-being and safety.
  • Use evidence to guide decisions: Use local data and feedback to guide us. This helps ensure our actions are effective and reflect the needs of those who live, work and play in Niagara.
  • Drive system-wide change: Work to improve systems and policies that impact our community. Make sure they are inclusive, fair and meet the diverse needs of all residents, including those who have faced discrimination.

Planning framework

  • Social development: Promoting and maintaining safety and well-being
  • Prevention: Proactively reducing identified risks
  • Risk intervention: Mitigating situations of elevated risk
  • Incident response: Critical and non-critical incident response

Priority areas

The following key priority areas were chosen by the community as the core focus for safety and well-being planning in Niagara. The experiences of individuals with lived expertise will continue to shape the actions linked to each priority area.

  • Mental health and addiction

    What we want to achieve

    Improve access to mental health and addiction services and supports that are culturally safe, equitable and appropriate.

    How we will measure progress

    • Increase the number of individuals visiting the emergency department for mental health and / or addictions
    • Decrease the number of local substance use-related deaths
    • Increase access to treatment for historically underrepresented and marginalized individuals

    Action spotlights

  • Homelessness and basic needs

    What we want to achieve

    Improve access to basic needs and appropriate supports for people experiencing barriers.

    How we will measure progress

    • Decrease the number of chronically homeless individuals
    • Increase the number of supportive and affordable housing units

    Action spotlights

    • Supportive Housing Strategy
  • Gender-based violence

    What we want to achieve

    Enhance Niagara's capacity to recognize, prevent and respond to gender-based violence.

    How we will measure progress

    • Increase referrals to gender-based violence services and supports
    • Strengthen prevention efforts through community education and outreach
    • Decrease incidents of intimate partner violence and human trafficking in Niagara

    Action spotlights

    • Increase the capacity for community agencies to respond to intimate partner violence and human trafficking
  • Community safety

    What we want to achieve

    Reduce the need for emergency services by improving early intervention and making sure the right service providers respond quickly.

    How we will measure progress

    • Decrease the number of low-priority calls to 911
    • Increase the number of individuals whose overall risk is reduced through connections to appropriate services

    Action spotlights

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