Let's Talk

Outreach Gets the Message Across

BY Bill Rankin, Communications Officer, Communications and Citizen Engagement Sector

Photo: Bill Rankin

Community Outreach worker positions were first created in 2001 following a pilot project in Kingston, Ontario, initiated by Outreach Director Elaine St-Amour and her staff. The project was applauded for building awareness of criminal justice issues and for creating and strengthening ties to the community.

Sophie Lemire, based in the Social Reintegration Division at Quebec Regional Headquarters, is one of the Correctional Service of Canada’s (CSC) official Outreach workers. A former parole officer, she’s enthusiastic about her job and believes strongly in reintegration. She enjoys the dynamic role she plays, the interaction with people from all walks of life, and having the chance to lead projects such as public opinion surveys, art auctions, and meetings with targeted groups.

“In the Quebec Region, building partnerships with the community started long ago with Guy Villeneuve, Normand Granger, and Denis Méthé,” she explains. “They all have huge experience with community and organizations. I am continuing this tradition by educating and building awareness.”

From experience, Sophie has learned that messages must be tailor-made to suit specific audiences — youth, the business community, senior citizens. She spends a considerable amount of her time getting to know these groups and understanding their issues. “We try to identify activities that are the most effective at building awareness for all these groups. We try to counter distorted perceptions and fallacies about the Service or conditional release that people are exposed to in the media.”

“We reach teenagers by organizing forums in high schools and connecting with other youth-oriented organizations. For businessmen, we organize half-day visits to institutions so they can see that offenders are a workforce, often with valuable certifications. As for older people, they want to know about safety issues.”

As the general population grows more diverse, the offender population follows suit; naturally, ethnic groups have become the newest target for Outreach activities. Sophie feels it is important to connect with these groups in the community and find out what concerns them most about corrections and other areas of the criminal justice system.

“We organized the first Haitian forum in Montréal,” she says with a smile. “It required a special approach. We consulted with politicians and other leaders of the Haitian community before we decided on any specific activities.”

Whatever the recommendations, Sophie looked forward to being part of activities that helped build understanding and, ultimately, lead to safer communities.

On the other side of the country, in Vancouver, Lisa Bayne shares the same degree of commitment and enthusiasm for her job as her Quebec counterpart. Lisa, too, started her career as a parole officer and made the move to Outreach three years ago.

“I make a point of cultivating relationships with people who might otherwise never know anything about corrections,” she says. “One of my main messages is that the federal parole officers’ goal is the same as other law enforcement officers such as police: to make the community a safer place to live. We spend incredible amounts of time getting that across as well as other key messages.”

Lisa has discovered that one of the most effective methods of relaying messages is through other organizations’ events rather than CSC initiatives. “We’ve had community forums where the turnout has been a little disappointing. So often we tap into other events that are already happening. Piggy-backing our message on the back of other events is the most effective way to get a guaranteed audience.”

Establishing a working relationship with the media before crises occur is another practice that Lisa wisely endorses. “If you wait until there’s trouble, it’s unlikely that you will find a sympathetic ear in the media. If you offer them good news stories and are willing to meet with them in the quiet times, you have a better chance of finding an ally or at least a more understanding listener when incidents occur.”

Lisa wants everyone to know that CSC staff does an incredible job during work hours and as volunteers in the correctional system on their own time. It’s a great challenge to get the message out to the community, but both she and Sophie are determined to get it across. ♦

Note: In early 2005, five positions were created for media relations/Outreach advisors.