Building Safer Communities

The Civic Innovation Lab is supporting the City of Burnaby to develop and implement a suite of research projects focusing on reducing gun and gang violence, work that is funded by Public Safety Canada’s Building Safer Communities Fund. Through the CIL, faculty members at Simon Fraser University’s School of Criminology have been engaged to embed evidence-based, data-informed research into this work. Specific lines of inquiry include understanding pathways into youth gang involvement and mitigating upstream risk factors, and investigating the impact of current municipal and school-based prevention and intervention programming. This work will take place over a four-year period.

In spring 2024, researchers organized a symposium on SFU’s Burnaby Mountain campus which brought together local stakeholders, law enforcement, and academic experts to share insights into the challenges and successes of ongoing work to address local gun and gang violence. Researchers are also launching sub-studies to gather evidence and baseline data for primary, secondary, and tertiary intervention strategies.