The City of Edmonton and the Edmonton Police Service joined forces with the non-profit group REACH Edmonton as well as the local Somali and indigenous community Thursday night to have a conversation about how to improve safety in the heart of the city.
The Safety Summit saw dozens of people turn up at the Alberta Avenue Community League to learn more and to express their concerns.
One of the members of the Safety Summit committee said the event provided an opportunity to encourage what she believes is is the necessary cooperation between various community stakeholders to address crime in central Edmonton.
“There’s a lot of discrimination and divide within communities and our goal really, is to bridge that divide and bridge that gap and bring everyone together and work towards safety,” Fatmah Kalouti said. “With that being said, we do need lawmakers and we do need the police on our side to be able to make an actual impactful difference and it’s been great – they’ve been very supportive of our work as well.”
A similar summit was held in March where Alberta Avenue residents voiced concerns about drugs and prostitution in their neighbourhood.
READ MORE: Police speak to Alberta Avenue residents about fighting crime in north Edmonton
The summit’s organizers said while Edmonton’s core is the focus of discussions for now, they hope to eventually branch out the conversation across the city.