Kris Andreychuk is a social worker with the City of Edmonton and a member of a specialized Neighbourhood Empowerment Team working in the McCauley neighbourhood. Kris and his partner, Constable Chapman Lee work with the community to identify and implement ways to prevent violent crime from reoccurring.
1 = 8… Seriously.
One 40 oz (1.14L) bottle of 10.1 % alcohol is equivalent to eight regular cans of beer. That means three of these bottles is equal to a flat (24) of beer, twelve bottles brings you to nearly 100 cans… you get the point. What’s crazy is that this isn’t even the highest alcohol 40oz bottle available.
Just as a point of clarification, 40 oz referrers to the volume of a single serve beer. They’re typically high in alcohol and are relatively inexpensive.
How does this relate to McCauley? Glad you asked!
In our past blog entry, I made reference to alcohol, specifically high alcohol single serve beer, as a ‘risk factor.’ It’s important to note that when I say risk, I’m referring primarily to victimization – not perpetrating violence. That being said, we have seen and heard plenty about violent behaviour associated with the consumption of these products – it’s just not as common as the consumers being victimized.
To date, we have had face-to-face interviews and dealt with over 110 community members consuming alcohol in public. This is a complex issue, and we’re curious about it, so we’ve been asking questions when given the chance.
Questions relate to what’s being consumed, why, what would be consumed in the event that the preferred product was no longer available, where people are shopping, the social aspects of drinking, what a solution could looks like, etc.
People have been very candid and their responses, insightful. The responses, related to ‘what,’ have shown a clear preference – inexpensive, high alcohol, and large servings. This speaks to the ‘why’ as well. Pretty straightforward.
The responses to other questions, however, are far more complex. They have already broadened our understanding of the issues and have informed our approach, both short and long term.
Over-service is the issue – whether it is regular or high alcohol beer. However, there are certain products that certainly are not part of the solution. Essentially, these bottles are power packed with alcohol in a large volume. This is something that we’ll be impressing upon merchants in the coming weeks and something my police partner Chapman and I have been communicating to community members since day one.
The goals of our Neighbourhood Empowerment Violence Reduction Team are to connect and build relationships with vulnerable people in McCauley, collect our findings to broaden the scope of the issues and communicate with you, the larger community, via social media. As simple as this seems, these three actions have ballooned into quite the undertaking.
We’re now a month and a half into this project. With two and a half months left we are left with a great deal to do. Again, if you spot us in McCauley, feel free to stop and say hi.
We’d love to hear your perspective on how we can work to make our City safer and more connected.
Want to know what we’re up to day-by-day? Follow my Constable Partner Chapman Lee on Twitter!