The Onion Lake Cree Nation and RCMP have joined forces as part of a gang awareness and prevention project.
The project is also called māmawikamātotān – which means working together for our communities.
It was developed by both the Mounties and Onion Lake as a way to give resources, information and awareness to community members about gang involvement and activity.
Laili Yazdani, an RCMP community program officer, said the project is the result of months of community consultations.
“During the first initial forums, there were a lot of requests to increase awareness on drug and gang issues within Indigenous communities,” she said. “So, this project is really a response to that, to those requests.”
Materials for the initiative include posters, videos and pamphlets that are being shared online as well as with community members who request them.
Yazdani said resources were created for different demographics in the community including parents, educators and elders.
She said they wanted to make the materials accessible to all which is why they are produced in five different languages.
“The other part that’s really exciting about this project is that all of the written materials — the booklet and the posters — they’re available in Cree, Michif, Dene, English and French. And that’s really to increase the accessibility of these materials for communities.”
Officials began distributing project materials at the beginning of July.
(PHOTO: Courtesy Saskatchewan RCMP Facebook page.)