 The goal of Vancouver's downtown community court is to improve the community itself to reduce crime and to increase public safety and livability. At Vancouver's downtown community court, community service is a part of most sentences imposed by the court for offenders who have committed property offenses or assaults. Community service gives offenders the opportunity to pay back the community for the harm they have caused by providing useful work, typically in the same neighborhood where the crime was committed. At the downtown community court, a range of community service is available to match the work with the offender so that everyone can benefit. At the community court, the offender can start the community service on the same day or the next day after they are sentenced. This is more meaningful to everyone involved. The offender can start to contribute to the community and the community will receive the immediate benefits. There are many benefits to the offenders and to the community. Most recently we participated with our West End Cold Harbor Community Policing Center and did a paint out and had a number of offenders from the court come out and join the community and paint out graffiti in some of the worst areas in our neighborhood and it was a great opportunity to truly build community and take down the walls that are the us versus them. Offenders are assigned to one of two types of community service. The first is a work crew which focuses on the streets and improving the neighborhoods in our community and catchment area. We've had the community court clients actually come and do some cleanup around the neighborhood and that's been on a regular basis. I think those folks that have been working on programs with the business association, for instance, we have a hanging basket program that we work with the downtown community court so the folks come and maintain the baskets as well as water them and I think for them some of the individuals that have been participating in the program are really interested in around urban agriculture so that's a very different thing for them to be involved with and perhaps once they finish with the program at the community court that interest can continue on. The second type of community service is provided through our community service partners. There are about 25 agencies involved in supervising community service hours assigned by the downtown community court. These agencies range from shelters and food banks to community centers. The community services provided through these agencies involve offenders helping with general maintenance duties, preparing and serving meals at a homeless shelter, assisting at a library and working in the warehouse and stocking shelves at a food bank. In addition to performing work service as part of a court sanction, it also gives offenders an opportunity to benefit from the services the placement agency provides. For example, someone doing work service at a community center may also benefit from community center programs after their hours are complete. At community court we try to match placements with offenders so both the community and the offender benefit. By the end of the first year, community court has provided thousands of hours of community service. I'm an experienced probation officer. The personal challenge is that some offenders have addictions, homelessness, mental health issues and so forth drive their criminal behavior and can lead them to be chronic offenders. The downtown Eastside in particular is fraught with problems and it's very difficult to take somebody who's committed a crime and bring them to court and expect any change in their lives and their behaviors when you don't have resources to turn things around. Those resources are in many cases not jail. It's finding somebody at home. It's getting them the medical care that they need either through a patient or even if you're going to send them out to the Burnaby facility but for mental health it's huge. I always say we're not going to rest our way out of the problem. It's just not going to happen. We need to find resources for the people that are down here that get themselves in trouble and the community court is one step in doing that. At the downtown community court offenders are getting the supports they need and they can do their community service because of that. We're able to focus more on the offender. Sometimes I'm out there with them working with the offenders and taking them to services. A few have come back to see me just to talk, tell me how they're doing. It's giving these people a sense of community and helping them realize they are part of that community and can be accepted by that community. I would say the community is quite involved and has been from the very beginning and they're on site in the community court each and every day. We are still actively engaged in ongoing meetings with different groups that have very different perspectives on community concerns. The community court's catchment area includes seven very distinct communities. There are so many organizations in the community that are helping us out. One agency of volunteer court workers helps our clients get to where they need to be within the courthouse to see their probation officer or to get connected to community service right away. A local art gallery displays local artists work in the courthouse. Two companies provide packed lunches every day to offenders who are doing community service. Another donates comfort kits and hygiene kits for clients being released from custody. That dream is now reality and that reality I believe we can be confident will make a significant contribution to the downtown Vancouver community and will promote a safe community. It will enhance public confidence in the administration of justice and reduce recidivism and reduce the level of so-called minor crime. So I don't think I could do better to close than to quote Chief Wilson when she said this morning, this is a great day.