The idea behind a Situation Table is to build and sustain multi-sector collaborations to assist communities with social challenges.
Mayor Bob Simpson…
“It’s inter agency but inter agency with respect to specific individuals or families in our community, that a proactive approach to assisting them at an inter agency table would be very helpful to both them and potentially the community.”
All of Council was on board including Mitch Vik…
“Specifically when we’re talking about identifying at risk individuals and offering a coordinated response and assistance to these individuals before there’s community ramifications, so it seems highly reasonable to pursue this line of thinking.”
Vik also liked the idea that the city would receive annual data from the program that he felt would be valuable, and that there was grant funding to help set it up.
Director of Development Services Tanya Turner goes over those details…
“The funding is a 40 thousand dollar one time grant that will lead to the training, and there is a table that operates very much like this so it will be just giving this table a little more teeth and resources for something that is already occurring.”
Social challenges that a situation table might deal with include things like alcoholism, drugs, negative peers and suspected victimizations leading to missing persons, suicides and criminal behavior.
There are currently eleven Situation Tables in the province, and Quesnel is now requesting to the Ministry of Public Safety and the Solicitor General’s Office to become the 12th.
