Cranbrook’s Laurie Middle School has received funding from the province’s civil forfeiture program toward its Violence Free BC program.

“Education is the first step in preventing and eliminating violence,” Kootenay East MLA Bill Bennett said. “This project will engage students with a wide range of issues and help them become leaders in making B.C. a violence-free place.”

The $10,000 grant will go toward a series of daylong retreats for Grade 9 students hosted by staff from local anti-violence agencies. They will cover topics such as root causes and impacts of violence, relationship violence, social media, healthy boundaries, consent and respectful relationships.

This year, the priority focus for civil forfeiture proceeds is on initiatives about violence against women, through the Violence Free BC initiative, as it will be in years to come. Other areas where funding was made available included serving victims through restorative justice, community and youth crime prevention, and police training and equipment.

For this round of civil forfeiture grants, a call for applications was made in November 2014 and recipients were selected using the established grant criteria set out in the application form.

Since the civil forfeiture program became active, it has returned approximately $15 million from successful forfeiture actions to crime prevention and victims programs in B.C.

Violence Free BC is the provincial government’s longterm strategy and commitment to end violence against women. Acting as a roadmap, Violence Free BC combines immediate actions with a long-term vision to end the violence, and to support women whose lives and wellbeing have been impacted by violence.

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