$44,900.00 for a violence prevention game

On behalf of Jean-Sébastien Dufresne, president of the Youth Forum of the Island of Montreal, Lachine Mayor Claude Dauphin who is also the president of the Regional Conference of Municipal Officials of Montreal (French acronym - CRE), handed over a cheque of $44,900.00 to Randy Johnston, director of the Lachine Boys and Girls Club – Le Net on February 25 in the presence of Victoria Pinnell, spiritual life and community commitment animator, Lakeside Academy.

Their presence in the Lachine school allowed them to take part in a prevention workshop for violence and street gangs. Two classes were gathered in the Lakeside Academy auditorium to make them participate in an interactive game. This game was specifically developed to make young people aware of the different forms of violence, the stages of conflict resolution and the characteristics of a structured street gang.

The roue de prevention encourages participants to examine their conscience. It is an initiative that is targeted at young people in order to enlighten them about the various forms of violence, the characteristics of a street gang and how to resolve conflict. Designed in collaboration with crime experts of the Centre Option Prévention TVDS of Lachine, the interactive game hopes to promote dialogue among participants. In the last few months, close to 400 students from Lachine’s Lakeside Academy and Dalbé-Viau secondary schools took part in this original prevention session.

Manon Lacroix of the Centre Option Prévention TVDS of Lachine was able to make more than 200 students of the Dalbé-Viau school play the game through the use of bilingual animation cards.

Mayor Dauphin was thrilled with the results. “The CRÉ of Montreal (Regional Conference of Municipal Officials) is proud to be part of this innovative project which contributes to the prevention of violence among the youth through a constructive and playful approach”, he said. The next phase of the project will consist of putting the game at the disposal of youth workers by making it available on the Internet.

“We are proud to be able to support this project which will definitely equip those adolescents who are the most vulnerable with the necessary tools and strategy”, Jean-Sébastien Dufresne of the Youth Forum added.

“In addition to making them more aware of the tensions that they experience, the youth have learned that they can peacefully behave in certain ways to protect themselves”, Randy Johnson of Le Net Club said.

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