People involved in a Community Safety and Well-Being Pilot Project are finding out what they can do to make Estevan a safer place.

The project is aimed at bringing together stakeholders from the city and multiple community services, with other pilots in Nipawin, Humboldt, and Outlook.

It's using the leadership and experience of current community members as the program is being delivered through the Saskatchewan Economic Development Alliance.

Shelley Veroba, chairperson for the project and city councillor, says they've already taken some steps forward.

"We have our statement of purpose to work collaboratively across all sectors to create and enhance community safety and well-being in the community of Estevan. Our vision is that our community will sustain safety and well-being for all generations."

One goal for the project is to make both prospective and current residents feel safe with adequate community resources.

"One of the main goals I'd like to see is that ... for generations to come, Estevan will be seen and will actually be a safe community to live in,” said Veroba. “A lot of times people will hear things in the community and those kinds of things that they hear may be negative and make them feel unsafe."

"Some of that will actually be where we do live in a safe community but people are feeling unsafe. So we want to make sure that people know that Estevan's a safe community and also that people know where to go if they feel unsafe, unwell, if they need something to even just enhance their own personal safety, whether that be physical or mental well-being." 

Several meetings are on the docket for early 2024. Veroba says she's positive heading into the new year.

"Our next meeting is in January, and then we'll have a follow-up meeting in February and I believe our committee will actually begin to meet as a group in March. So right now, we're still working with a relatively large group of stakeholders in the community and we're going to try and get that down to a smaller group, but still being able to reach out to everybody that's been having input put into the initial building of this committee."

"It's a really well-informed group of people who do a lot of great things in our community and I'm very positive that this is going to be different than other groups that have happened in the past, and the fact that we continue to have the follow through in the generations in the years to come." 

The group stated in a release that the official Estevan Community Safety and Well-Being Plan will be released in 2024.

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