Community Safety

Program Overview

This innovative program focuses on community safety through prevention, preparedness, and social justice. It combines social sciences, leadership, policing, and crisis management to empower students to build stronger, more resilient communities. Graduates are prepared for careers in the public, private, and non-profit sectors, including emergency management, crisis intervention, and law enforcement.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

Overview:

This program is the first of its kind in Canada, addressing the need for a new approach to community safety by focusing on prevention, preparedness, and social justice. Traditional law enforcement methods are expensive and don't always address the diverse needs of Canadian society. That's why the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, non-profits, and graduate programs endorse this degree.

Objectives:

• Build stronger communities by teaching students about government, law enforcement, emergency planning, building partnerships between police and community groups, speaking up for traditionally marginalized groups and vulnerable people, and empowering citizens to build safer and more resilient communities.
• Think globally, act locally by teaching students how global events, like war and climate change, affect people at the local level.
How do these events shape our perception of safety? How does the use of social media influence our understanding of these events? Throughout this program, students will develop a strong understanding of the challenges communities face and explore new ways to address those issues.
• Provide an integrated approach by offering a new model for community wellness that combines the social sciences, leadership, policing, and crisis management.
Projects span classes and subjects, so students develop a broad perspective.

Outline:

Content and Structure:

• Semester 1: Introduction to Criminal Law, The Sociology of Community, Creative Learning and Leadership Portfolio, Organizations and Administration in the Public Domain, Composition and Rhetoric (Breadth Elective)
• Semester 2: Introduction to Criminology, Foundations of Psychology, Policing, Society and Community, Culture and Inequality in a Global World, Breadth Elective
• Semester 3: Critical Thinking for Healthy Communities, Making Others: The Sociology of Deviance, Disaster and Emergency Management, The Art of Influence: Understanding Behavioural Change, Breadth Elective
• Semester 4: Prevention and Resiliency Models for Promoting Community Safety, Breadth Elective
• Semester 4: Prevention and Resiliency Models for Promoting Community Safety, Organizational and Societal Responses in Crisis Management, Introduction to Qualitative Methods, Breadth Elective, Breadth Elective
• Semester 5: Quantitative Methodology in Community Safety Research, Collaboration, Facilitation and Negotiation, Peace, Conflict and Global Justice Studies, Mental Health and Mental Illness, Global Justice Systems in Perspective
• Semester 6: Community Safety Planning, Program Evaluation, Criminal Forensic Psychology, Community Engagement and Social Justice, Work Term & Career Prep, Breadth Elective
• Semester 7: The Construction of Truth: Exploring New Media and Technology, Securing an Open Society in the Global Age, Countering Crime in Community Safety: Investigations and Evidence, Community Safety Capstone 1, Degree Breadth Elective
• Internship: Internship — 420 hours

Careers:

Career Paths:

• public sector
• private sector
• non-profit sector
• emergency management
• crisis intervention
• community building
• law enforcement

Opportunities and Outcomes:

• Graduates will be eligible for graduate studies in fields like social work, sociology, or public administration.