Winners >Constable Dave Dickson

Honourable Mentions

Constable Dave Dickson
Vancouver Police Department

Over the last 25 years, Constable Dave Dickson has earned the trust of hundreds of troubled youth from the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver by always being available by phone or pager, and by creating programs that work to improve their lives. The job goes on 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The Hard Targeting Project was designed and implemented by Dickson as way of bringing together many youth service providers in order to exchange information and create group strategies. Dickson, along with the Ministry of Social Services, youth workers, outreach workers, safe house workers and workers from the urban native youth association, all strive to assist the hardest youth to help: streetwise, addicted, sex-trade workers. This unique team provides care to the youth and works to help remove them from the destructive situation.

Dickson also started a program for youth who are in custody at the Youth Detention Centre in Burnaby. For the last four years, Dickson has travelled to the centre each month to speak with groups of 10-20 youth. "I tell them that they can call me when they get out if they need a hand or someone to be there for them, " Dickson says. He speaks to the youth about taking ownership for their actions and explains to them the impact that a crime has on a victim.

Between 1999 and 2000, Dickson launched an initiative along the Downtown Eastside Hastings Street corridor called the Safe Haven Program. The idea is similar to the Block Parent Program as it indicates to youth in danger which commercial premises in the corridor would be a safe place for them to approach.

Contact person:
Constable Dave Dickson
(604) 686 7523