YIPI
The Youth in Policing Initiative (YIPI) is an employment program with the Ottawa Police Service for youth 15-18 years of age who are attending a secondary school program. The goal of the YIPI program is to give young people an opportunity to develop job skills while enhancing police and community relations. The program is for interested youth with leadership potential including those who may experience barriers to success and would benefit from this unique opportunity.
The Summer YIPI program session runs from June to August, whereas the Winter session takes place from December to March. Participants will work in various Sections of the Ottawa Police Service, support community initiatives and learn valuable life and employment skills. YIPI participants will also have a working relationship with a number of valuable youth-serving organizations in Ottawa. These relationships are built during their time in placement. These positions may varie. Some YIPI's decide to do community outreach, others choose to do admin jobs within the organizations and so on. A few options given to the 2023 summer YIPI's were:
- Community/ Mobile Teams
- Fleet services
- Freedom of Information
- Design Management
- Strategic Partnerships
- BGC (Formerly known as The Boys and Girls Club)
- YMCA
For more information: click here.
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Flotilla for Friendship
The YIPI's attended the annual Flotilla for Friendship. They were able to be a part of the spiritual opening and closing ceremonies, leaving them with a part of the Algonquin culture. They were overjoyed to have participated at the canoeing and build a relationship with all those in attendance. This is an annual event held over the past 22 years!!
Until next year!
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Niigan Mosewak Indigenous Youth Camp
A few YIPI students were selected to go and share their program experiences, explain the process they have gone through to join be a YIPI student to an indigenous youth camp. These current YIPI students were glad to be able to get out into the community and build meaningful connections.
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Airport Discovery
On this particular Monday, the YIPI's were able to learn about the Ottawa International Airport's K9 division and even get to see them in action. It was an enjoyable experience and one of kind, as many OPS haven't even gotten this sort of opportunity. It was also very interesting to interact with the service dogs that are trained to help keep our city safe.
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Saint Luke's Family Fun Fest
A few select YIPI's had the chance to attend the Saint Luke's Family Fun Fest. Basketball games were a big part of the festivities, but there was so much more in store for everyone to enjoy.
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Search for Graffiti
For their weekly Monday meetups, the YIPI's attended a presentation on vandalism and the different aspects of graffiti, such as how to spot legal graffiti walls and report vandalism. They then spent the rest of the day going around the city, reporting all the graffiti they found. They had a great time and were able to help keep our beloved city's image.
This group reported 24 graffities. -
Pizza to the community
On July 21, the community and mobile teams made their way to Bashore Park to make some Pizza's for the community. This was their first of many outreach experiences.
