Community Safety and Well-Being Plan

2025-2029

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

2021

Plan first launched

4

Priority areas chosen by the community

10

Areas of focus for youth crime prevention

9

Community programs funded from 2024 to 2025

Goals and benefits

Our goal is to work together to address the root causes of complex social issues, and to strengthen the foundation for well-being and safety in Niagara. 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

About the plan

Working together on complex problems

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 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.

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.

From promoting well-being to responding to incidents

Planning framework

Social development

Level 1

Promoting and maintaining safety and well-being

Where this happens

Youth Crime Prevention Strategy

Prevention

Level 2

Proactively reducing identified risks

Where this happens

Community Substance Use Strategy
Youth Crime Prevention Strategy

Risk intervention

Level 3

Mitigating situations of elevated risk

Where this happens

Situation Table

Incident response

Level 4

Critical and non-critical incident response

Four priorities chosen by the community

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 success

Decrease 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

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

Three people standing next to each other

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

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

Group of adults in a counselling session

From plan to action

How the plan becomes programs in our community

The plan sets the direction. Focused strategies and funding turn that direction into programs that support people in Niagara.

The Community Safety and Well-Being Plan sets the priorities. The community chose four priority areas to focus safety and well-being planning in Niagara.
Strategies focus on specific needs. Niagara's Community Substance Use Strategy supports the mental health and addictions priority. The Strong Futures: Youth Crime Prevention Strategy focuses on helping young people stay safe and avoid becoming involved in crime.
Funding goes where it's needed most. The Building Safer Communities Grant Program is part of the Strong Futures strategy and funds programs for children, youth and young adults.
Community organizations deliver programs. Local non-profits, charities and Indigenous-led organizations run programs that address the root causes of crime.

Putting the plan into action

Supporting strategies and initiatives

These strategies and initiatives support the plan's priority areas.

Niagara's Community Substance Use Strategy

Strategy

A four-pillar approach to reduce the harms of substance use in Niagara.

Each pillar focuses on a different way to reduce the harms of substance use:

Prevention
Harm reduction
Treatment
Community safety

Supports: Mental health and addiction priority
Framework level: Prevention

Strong Futures: Youth Crime Prevention Strategy

Strategy

Helping young people stay safe and avoid becoming involved in crime.

We will work with the community to help prevent youth crime by:

Using data to find where support is needed most and investing in programs that work
Listening to young people, staff, community members and people with lived experience
Supporting young people's well-being and helping them build skills and confidence for the future

Supports: Community safety priority
Framework level: Social development and prevention
Funding: Building Safer Communities Grant Program

Situation Table

Initiative

Professionals from different fields work together to reduce risk before harm happens.

Partnering agencies work together and share their resources to:

Identify risk
Coordinate wraparound supports to community members in need
Prevent crisis
Better support vulnerable individuals living in the community

Supports: Community safety priority
Framework level: Risk intervention

Partnering agencies

More than 50 agencies / organizations collaborate to form Niagara's Situation Tables. Some regularly attend the meetings while others participate only on an as-needed basis.

Agencies / organizations involved in Niagara's Situation Tables

The Situation Tables include the following agencies / organizations as of May 1, 2025: