Montreal devotes $7M for youth projects to help prevent violence

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante announced that the city will allocate $7 million for community-initiated projects for youth, in a bid to help prevent at-risk youths from turning to crime. 

The announcement Thursday comes against the backdrop of a spate of gun violence across the city in recent months. Plante said that this initiative will encourage the involvement of young people in the neighbourhoods most affected by this issue.

The money comes from the $32 million reserved for the participatory budget. How the money is used will be decided by a public vote, after citizens propose ideas for improvements or facilities.

This year's second edition of the budget focuses on three main themes: youth, equity and safety.

"For us, the participatory budget is one of the ways to give the population the opportunity to reclaim their power to act on their city, their street, in their neighbourhood. And that is extremely important," said Plante. 

The $7 million investment will allow for the development of things like sports infrastructures, the holding of community activities, and the production of podcasts or documentaries by young people to raise awareness about their reality.

Mimoun Mohammed Nordine, co-ordinator of the Forum jeunesse de Saint-Michel, was part of the process.

"Young people often cite boredom and exclusion as reasons for dropping out of school," he said in an interview with Radio-Canada.

With this money, Nordine said, young people will be able to create projects like podcasts, which will help with their development in relation to speaking, to understanding their emotions and arguing their points in life. 

"That is not only necessary for their personal development, but also for the careers they will lead afterwards," he said.

Plante said she hopes these initiatives will strengthen the sense of belonging within the neighbourhoods and alleviate boredom, which can sometimes lead to crime.

The mayor noted that supporting young people is one of her priorities, and that information and ideation sessions — as well as a telephone service — have been set up to help them communicate their ideas.

'Opportunities to our beautiful youth' 

Plante said her administration wants to put youth "at the heart of decisions" in the fight against violence.

"That's why the schools, the community, the police department, the city of Montreal and other levels of government must all listen and be involved in offering opportunities to our beautiful youth," she said.

Following a Montreal forum to fight armed violence last March, the city committed to prioritizing initiatives that strengthen the sense of belonging in communities, as well as prevention and intervention initiatives.

"To fully address the issue of violence, we must also address its root causes," said Plante. "I am talking about the inequalities that exist between individuals and inequalities between neighbourhoods."

In a statement Thursday, Abdelhaq Sari, the public security critic for Ensemble Montréal, the official Opposition at city hall, criticized the Plante administration's announcement, saying the measures presented were "recycled" from an announcement made last March. 

"If the Plante administration had really wanted to listen to young people and offer them tools for recreation, it would have offered them the sports centre it promised them in Montréal-Nord and which they have been waiting for too long," he said.