Pearl Lorentzen
Lakeside Leader
For the last 30 years, Slave Lake Victim Service Unit (VSU) has helped victims of crime and has no intention of stopping.
Victim Services
A March 11, 1992 Lakeside Leader article, mentions three types of support that the proposed VSU would offer – immediate support or information, help navigating the criminal justice system, and help writing victim impact statements.
“The level of care has always been there,” says Mark Carnegie, the chair of the Slave Lake Victim Services Society.
“Our mandate is resources, support and information,” says Jacquie Labrie, VSU program manager.
“You guys navigate the criminal justice system,” says Carnegie, referring to Labrie and her co-worker Sheryl Normore.
“That’s a huge piece of it,” agrees Jaquie. “She (Normore) has a really good relationship with the Crown (prosecutors).”
This means that victims meet with the prosecutors prior to the trial, not just on the day.
“We keep them (victims) in the loop,” adds Labrie, referring to how Victim Services tracks the case through the criminal justice system.
Resources can be anything a person needs. For victims of domestic violence, this can be connecting them with Northern Haven Support Society. For victims of sexual assault, VSU connects people with The Dragonfly Centre which provides free counselling for sexual assault survivors and their support people.
Information can be about VSU, the RCMP, and the criminal justice system.
Victim Services acts as “the middle life line between the community and the police,” says Carnegie.
Without a VSU, the police would have to provide this type of support to victims, adds Labrie.
The past
The Slave Lake Victim Services Society was incorporated on October 5, 1992. However, the idea of starting the VSU started sometime prior to March 11, 1992. At that time, the Slave Lake RCMP detachment decided they wanted to add a Community Policing Victim Services Unit.
Marilyn Dawson was the first coordinator, says the March 11, 1992 article. The program was based on a model out of Grande Prairie. The article predicted it was going to take Dawson about two months to finish the RCMP clearance to be able to help victims. In the meantime, Dawson and a work experience student Heike Repich-Frith were developing a training program for volunteer advocates.
During 1992, the VSU progressed, but with a change of leadership.
By fall 1992, the VSU had a new coordinator Louise Thompson, says an October 28, 1992 Leader article. The VSU had around 20 trained volunteer advocates.
“We’re very fortunate here in Slave Lake as far as the support we’re getting from the RCMP and other agencies goes,” said Thompson in the article. “Not all communities are that fortunate.”
In October 1992, the hope was to start helping victims on January 1, 1993.
“Initially our focus will be on the victims of physical and sexual assault,” said Thompson. “That’s the immediate need, and it’s where the RCMP want us to concentrate. And when our volunteers feel comfortable with the role, we will branch out.”
“There’s been hundreds of people (involved with VSU) since its inception,” says Carnegie. “We’ve been through so many evolutions.”
One of the fundraisers in the 1990s was a recycling program, says an August 23, 1995 Leader article. Money went toward building a ‘soft room’ for the VSU in the RCMP detachment.
“I would describe the soft room as a comfortable, ‘homey’, safe space for the victim to rest and receive support and resources,” says Labrie.
At the 30th anniversary celebration on January 21, 2023, Victim Services honoured Evelyn Norberg with a plaque from the grand opening of the soft room in 1996.
“She was key,” says Carnegie. “She was there,” when it all started.
“She was the face of Victim Services,” says Labrie.
Norberg started as a volunteer advocate in 1992, says Labrie having looked through the SVU’s archives. In 1994, she was hired as the coordinator. She continued in that position until 2007.
Norberg introduced Labrie to Victim Services, she adds. Norberg was everywhere in the community. She went to garage sales looking for dishes and furniture. Before Northern Haven was founded, Victim Services provided furniture, dishes and other household supplies to women escaping domestic violence.
In 2011, the VSU received extra funding to support victims of the Slave Lake 2011 wildfire.
The wildfire was started by arson, so everyone impacted was a victim of crime, says Carnegie.
Now
The VSU is run by the Slave Lake Victim Services Society. It is mostly funded by a grant from Alberta Justice and Solicitor General.
When the VSU started, the only paid position was the coordinator.
“Now we have paid case workers,” says Carnegie.
However, volunteer advocates are still involved.
“They (volunteer advocates) have all of the training,” says Labrie. “They can do anything that Sheryl (Normore) does with the clients.”
At the moment, Slave Lake doesn’t have many volunteer advocates.
“We did very little face-to-face, because of COVID,” says Labrie. “So we didn’t have the advocates doing anything. It was Sheryl and I.”
Things have opened up, but a lot of the volunteers were lost.
“It’s not for the faint of heart,” says Labrie.
In 2016, the board “pushed to be more financially stable,” says Carnegie. “We’ve tried to streamline a lot of things. We wanted to ensure that we would be viable in the future. We have to look at how we were spending money. Our grant is very specific. Our fundraising money we have a little more leeway.”
The money raised goes toward half of Normore’s salary, bumping her from part-time to full-time. She spends her extra hours helping anyone who needs support, not just victims of crime. For example, she helps the next of kin in accidental deaths.
This type of work is “absolutely not our mandate,” says Labrie. However, it is support that is needed in the community.
Future
Victim Services is continuing forward, but will change in spring 2024. At that time, the province will dissolve the local non-profits and move to a regional model that mirrors the four RCMP zones in Alberta.
Under the new model in 2024, Slave Lake will have two (or one-and-a-half) case workers. The administration will be done out of a regional office.
There is still space in the system for volunteer advocates, but not a local board.
“It’s the advocacy for the people, that will be gone with the new system,” says Labrie. The provincial government seems to assume that “all of these helps are in communities and can be accessed without Victim Services,” however that isn’t the case.
The Slave Lake Victim Services board isn’t sure how what the new system will look like, says Carnegie. “We’re continuing to do what we’re doing. This could all just disappear.”
“A number of municipalities have sent in letters asking for it to remain the same or maybe consider smaller regions,” says Labrie.
“You can see the logic of what they’re trying to do,” says Carnegie. Alberta has over 20 Victim Services Units and boards. Of those, over half are successful. However, some have had to close.
However, the lack of community involvement could be a problem, says Carnegie. Also, Slave Lake Victim Services won’t be able to help anyone other than victims of crime as there won’t be any fundraising.
