Item - 2022.EX29.2

City Council considered Items EX29.1 and EX29.2 together.

The Executive Committee recommends that:  

1. City Council request the Executive Director, Social Development, Finance and Administration, in partnership with the Toronto Police Service, the Toronto Police Services Board and all other implicated City Divisions, Agencies, and Corporations to form and participate in the SafeTO Advisory with key community and institutional partners to lead the internal system change work of SafeTO.

2. City Council adopt the key actions and deliverables in the SafeTO 2022 Work Plan as outlined in Attachment 1 to the report (January 12, 2022) from the Executive Director, Social Development, Finance and Administration; and City Council authorize the Executive Director, Social Development, Finance and Administration to modify, adapt and innovate implementation of the actions and deliverables in the Plan as required, in response to the changing needs of community, subject to funding approval as part of the 2022 budget process.

3. City Council request the Executive Director, Social Development, Finance and Administration, in collaboration with relevant City Divisions, Agencies, Corporations and partners, to report annually on the progress of implementation and the next year's work priorities and any financial impacts. 

4. City Council request the Executive Director, Social Development, Finance and Administration to report annually on the Community Youth Violence Prevention Grants and the expanded Community Crisis Response Funds as part of the standard delegated authority report to Economic and Community Development Committee.

5. City Council request City Divisions, Agencies and Corporations to share data, as permitted by law, to support the operations, monitoring and evaluation of SafeTO; and City Council request the Executive Director, Social Development Finance and Administration to report on the status of data sharing approaches.

6. City Council authorize the Executive Director, Social Development, Finance and Administration to negotiate and enter into agreement(s) with other governments, institutions, agencies and vendors as required to advance SafeTO including: partnership agreements, information sharing, data sharing, information and privacy agreements and request for proposals processes in a form acceptable to the City Solicitor.  

7. City Council request the Province of Ontario and Government of Canada to financially support the implementation of SafeTO Actions and align its related investments in Toronto in a manner which advances SafeTO goals.

8. City Council request the Province of Ontario (Ministries of Children, Community and Social Services, Health, the Solicitor General, the Attorney General, Education and Municipal Affairs and Housing), and the Government of Canada (Department of Justice Canada, Public Safety Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada, Indigenous Services Canada and Statistics Canada) to collaborate and directly partner with the City and other partners to establish and implement the following priority actions from the SafeTO Plan: 

a. the Community Crisis Support Service pilots to better support community health and wellness by introducing an alternative, community-based health model of crisis response that is community-led, client-centred, trauma-informed and focused on reducing harm;

b. the multi-sector Toronto Office to Prevent Gun Violence as a partnership between the City of Toronto, Toronto Public Health, Toronto Police Service, Toronto Police Services Board, Toronto Community Housing, and other partners to integrate investments and operationalize a cross-government approach to reduce violence; and

c. the Multi-sector Data Centre as a partnership between the City of Toronto, Toronto Public Health, Toronto Police Service, Toronto Police Services Board and other partners to enhance the collation, interpretation, use and harmonization of relevant data from across sectors to promote evidence informed decision making in real-time, robust monitoring, evaluation and public reporting. 

9. City Council reiterate its request to the Province of Ontario to provide funding to support the continued operation of the Sunnybrook Breaking the Cycle of Violence with Empathy Program (BRAVE), the creation of a St. Michael's Hospital violence intervention program and work in the long-term to create a network of hospital violence intervention programs to support gun violence reduction in Toronto.

10. City Council request the Toronto District School Board and the Toronto Catholic District School Board to collaborate and directly partner with the City to establish and implement the following priority actions from the SafeTO Plan:

a. the multi-sector Toronto Office to Prevent Gun Violence as a partnership between the City of Toronto, Toronto Public Health, Toronto Police Service, Toronto Police Services Board, Toronto Community Housing, and other partners to integrate investments and operationalize a cross-government approach to reduce violence; and

b. the Multi-sector Data Centre as a partnership between the City of Toronto, Toronto Public Health, Toronto Police Service, Toronto Police Services Board and other partners to enhance the collation, interpretation, use and harmonization of relevant data from across sectors to promote evidence informed decision making in real-time, robust monitoring, evaluation and public reporting.

SafeTO, Toronto's Ten Year Community Safety and Well-being Plan was unanimously adopted by City Council at its July 14, 2021 meeting. In approving Safe TO, the City of Toronto continues its legacy of taking bold actions to address complex challenges by reimagining core elements of community safety and well-being to shift from a reliance on reactive emergency response to a culture of prevention.

To pursue this vision, City Council adopted a comprehensive long-term plan that aims to: i) expand the definition of community safety beyond crime and/or enforcement to include prevention and well-being; ii) leverage and strengthen partnerships across sectors and communities to enhance our shared ability to act early, and iii) use multi-sector data to inform planning and decision-making.

City staff, working with Toronto Public Health, Toronto Police Service, Toronto Community Housing, and partners in community and other institutions, have developed the SafeTO Implementation Plan that build a strong foundation to advance the 7 goals and 26 priority actions of the Community Safety and Well-Being Plan over the next decade.

The SafeTO Implementation Plan, outlined in this report, focuses on building a strong foundation in year one. The plan is informed by findings from research and community consultations conducted during the development of SafeTO, advice from the SafeTO Advisory, and lessons learned from our ongoing collaboration with the Toronto Police Service. The plan identifies where existing City strategies and programs are advancing SafeTO goals and where critical new priority actions and structures are necessary.

The year one 2022 work plan for SafeTO centres on four priority actions:

• Action 1.3: Embed the community crisis support service as a well-resourced first-response service city-wide

• Action 2.1: Develop a comprehensive multi-sector gun violence reduction plan

• Action 2.3: Strengthen community crisis response protocols to better support victims and communities impacted by violence, and;

• Action: 7.1 Develop a comprehensive strategy to share, integrate and analyze data across multiple institutions for the purpose of informing real-time policy development and service planning. 

These four priority actions are foundational to advancing the 7 goals and 26 priority actions of the Community Safety and Well-Being Plan. This report recommends that in 2022, Social Development, Finance and Administration Division, as the coordination lead for SafeTO implementation, will: 

• work with partners  through a multi-sector SafeTO Advisory Table to guide and support implementation;
• identify and leverage existing programs that can advance SafeTO goals and actions;
• invest in community leadership and action oriented collaborative approaches; and
• develop and implement an intergovernmental strategy to achieve policy and investment alignment. 

SafeTO is a transformative endeavour that requires innovation to respond to urgent immediate challenges and shape the long-term changes needed to improve policies, initiatives, and practices across institutions. The recommended plan will enable the City of Toronto to continue leading dialogue to advance SafeTO goals, identify shared outcomes across governments and institutions, leverage community networks and advocacy groups, and prioritize place-based and community-based subject matter expertise. Now endorsed by the Toronto Police Services Board, SafeTO also provides an important opportunity for the City, the Toronto Police Service and the Toronto Police Services Board Office to collaborate more strategically on ongoing police reform actions and systemic transformation.