In the News
Ministerial announcement from Public Safety Canada
This project, led by the Canadian Centre for Safer Communities (legal name: Canadian Municipal Network on Crime Prevention) in partnership with six organizations, focuses on upstream prevention and building local capacity to prevent violent extremism and strengthen community resilience. The initiative supports municipal governments, frontline service providers, and local organizations in responding to rising pressures hate, polarization and extremist violence.
National project brings Halifax advocates, youth together to prevent extremist violence
Front-line workers and youth in Halifax are working together under a federal pilot project to combat hate and extremist violence in the city, hoping their work can help families, police and service providers throughout Atlantic Canada…
CK Invited to Join National Pilot Aimed At Building Inclusive Communities
Chatham-Kent will be given the tools to develop community initiatives to strengthen protective factors, mitigate vulnerability, and address emerging safety issues while supporting the municipality’s ability to lead by example in building a more inclusive, resilient, and safe community…
Events
Strong Cities Network’s Sixth Global Summit
December 2025
Our executive director Melanie Bania and our UPSTREAM project manager Vicky Laprade attended Strong Cities Network’s Sixth Global Summit, in Toronto.
Vicky presented on National-Local Cooperation Good Practices, on a panel facilitated by Eric Rosand and featuring Robert Burley from Canada Centre for Community Engagement & Prevention of Violence, Amy Siciliano from Halifax Regional Municipality, and Jonathon Reed from Next Gen Men.
Takeaways from this conference include:
– The importance of collaboration and multisectoral approaches when tackling complex social issues;
– The need to recognize obstacles posed by securing funding, which often requires projects to be a “one size fits all”, while also being adaptable to local realities which emerge on the ground;
– The crucial role played by grassroots and non-profit organizations.
We are grateful for the important connections made and renewed at this conference, and for the enthusiasm attendees expressed regarding Project UPSTREAM!
2025 CCFSC Annual Conference
At our annual conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia, we had a session titled “Project Upstream Presents: A Spotlight on Municipalities Strengthening Multi-Sectoral Partnerships to Prevent Extremist Violence in Canada”
The session focused on the two-year project that aims to pilot and scale up local multi-sectoral partnerships across Canada to address issues of social polarization and hate that can lead to violence or violent extremism. They discussed who the project really is for, and who does it seek to support, how and why.
We had three of the ten municipalities engaged in Project UPSTREAM attend and share their diverse stories of hope, challenge, and vision for localized prevention of violent extremism facilitated by Restorative Justice Practitioner and Project UPSTREAM Partner, Kamil Ahmed from Community Justice Initiatives of Waterloo Region.
