Cold Lake Victim Services hits 30 year milestone

Changes coming in the future to Cold Lake Victim Services and units across the province. 

Cold Lake Victim Services celebrated an important milestone in its history last week. 

On August 3rd, employees, board members, volunteers, and police officers gathered to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Victim Services unit in the city. 

Program manager Dave Zimmerman has been around 15 of those years and has seen many of the changes that have occurred over time.

“We’re very, very proud of that accomplishment of 30 years to be in the community,” Zimmerman told Lakeland Connect.

The crew at the office consists of Zimmerman and two other employees, while there are six board members, one victim service liaison, and with six volunteers.

CLVS helps victims of crimes with their next steps. Whether its connecting them with counselling or support services, their goal is minimize the impacts a victim has after a crime.

So far this year, their case files are remaining on par to 2021, a year in which they had the most files they’ve ever had.

However in achieving this 30-year milestone, things will be changing soon for how these units will operate across Alberta.

Announced on July 19, Victim Services departments will be ran on the zone level with four zones across the province. From there, local RCMP detachments will have employees at their sites.

This comes after a review of how victim service delivery was being administered.

The timelines and details of this change are not yet known.

“We’re very proud to serve the victims of crime of the community. Partnering with the RCMP and, and other community partners, and t’s been a successful 30 years and we look forward, you know, we look forward to continuing not Cold Lake Victim Services, of course, but we look forward that there will be support for victims of crime out there in the future,” said Zimmerman.