City Councillor, Ritesh Narayan received the 2020 Community Justice Award given by the Alberta Justice and Solicitor General for his Leadership, and crime prevention initiatives.
“Leadership is essentially leading from the front, being proactive, and coming up with different initiatives, speaking with different stakeholders, and making them look outside the box to prevent crime,” Narayan said.
To be nominated for the 2020 Community Justice Award for Leadership, Narayan was required to show a pattern of behaviour that showed invested interest in community safety through research, writing articles, leading initiatives, and advocating for justice.
“Now that I’m in a position of leadership being a councillor, I can use that position in so many ways. I’m using this position as a platform to advocate for justice, to help people understand diversity and inclusion, and also to advocate for good practices and policies in crime prevention,” Narayan said.
Narayan introduced Chestermere’s anti-bullying bylaw, he organizes free research to help organizations save money and address crime while co-founding the Canadian Association of Criminology and Legal Studies, and the not-for-profit organization designed to address discrimination and promote diversity and inclusion, Coffee & Culture.
Narayan is also part of the City of Calgary’s Public Safety Task Force on Guns and Gangs, and Chestermere’s Police Communication Link since 2017.
“The Chestermere Police Communication Link Committee gives me a platform to introduce my ideas, run it by residents and the RCMP, and then I take that to council to bring about changes,” Narayan said.
For Narayan, receiving the award and being recognized for his work in crime prevention has been a humbling experience.
“One thing I’ve learned since coming into the office is when you try and do social work, and work in the community, it’s generally a selfless and a thankless job. You don’t usually get thanks for the things you do, I’m OK with it, I do things without expecting it, this came as a very nice surprise,” Narayan said.
“Doing something for the community for such a long time, and being acknowledged and rewarded was truly humbling,” he said.
Adding, “It makes me want to work harder. I’ve been acknowledged for my leadership, people are watching, and I’ve set the bar for myself even harder to continue doing the good work and continue coming up with different initiatives for a safer community.”
Moving forward, Narayan will continue his work of introducing policies that are based on evidence to ensure crime prevention.
“Crime is something that cuts across every community and touches everyone in ways that we don’t even realize. You might not be a direct victim of a crime, but it does affect you,” Narayan said.
“What I’m trying to do is constantly look for good initiatives, things that have been tried and tested in other communities and it’s working, and bring it to Chestermere,” he said.
Through the many initiatives Narayan has organized, acknowledging that crime prevention is not only the work of police, but the responsibility of every resident remains a top priority.
“Through my initiatives, that’s what I try to make people realize, that everyone has to do their part when it comes to crime prevention,” Narayan said.
