The heads of two inner-city youth programs say they’ve noticed an upward trend in youth violence in recent years, and say more needs to be done to prevent it.
“We see it in the behaviours of our children, but also the random activities that happen even across the street or just on the sidewalk,” said Rossbrook House executive director Patty Mainville.
Rossbrook House has been a safe haven for youth in Winnipeg’s Centennial neighbourhood since 1976. Mainville says youth tend to leave their lives “at the door,” but knows they’re impacted by the “increased use of drugs and how that spills out into our community.”
She says some youth feel forced to carry weapons to protect themselves.
“That’s all due to the increase of drugs in the neighborhood that they see and the chances of being robbed out on the street,” she said.
According to the Winnipeg Police Service’s 2023 Statistical Report, youth crimes decreased each year from 2018 to 2021. Between 2021 and 2023, youth crime trended upward — but 2023 still saw fewer instances than 2018, at 2,054 and 2,442, respectively. However, a higher proportion of those crimes were violent in 2023 than in 2018.
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CommUNITY204 founder and executive director Daniel Hidalgo has also noticed the upward trend.
“It’s really disheartening to see it, because I do think that those instances and that susceptibility is preventable,” he said.
Hidalgo built his organization to fill gaps he experienced first-hand as a youth who spent part of his childhood in the foster care system.
“If kids look to the left and there’s a resource, and they look to the right and there’s a resource, and they go outside and there’s a resource, and the resources are just constantly thrown in their face, then they kind of know what their options are, and they can choose what they feel is best for them,” he said.
“It seems that the common denominator, the commonality between those instances is lack of resources, is it is living in poverty,” he added. “It’s really hard to engage in anything positive when you’re hungry or when you’re angry or where you’re cold.”
CommUNITY204’s programming serves about 250 youth regularly. While poverty, crime and addictions are complex issues, Hidalgo says prevention is much simpler.
“There’s no such thing as a kid that’s born bad. There’s no such thing as a youth that that wakes up and wants to do bad things. Unfortunately, there’s there’s an abundance of youth that wake up and they’re under-supported and they’re overlooked. And I think that’s where a lot of the issues come into play,” he said.
Mainville agrees. She and Hidalgo say dedicated investment is needed to help bring youth crime numbers down again.
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