Friday, August 05, 2016
By Kevin Maimann
Council of Somali Canadian People of Alberta will meet next week
Jibril Ibrahim is helping unite Alberta's Somali community. SUPPLIED
Alberta’s Somali community is uniting under one umbrella.
There are more than a dozen groups with different goals in Edmonton alone, and Somali Canadian Cultural Society of Edmonton President Jibril Ibrahim said it was time to give them a united voice to talk to police and government.
The new organization, the Council of Somali Canadian People of Alberta, will include 50 people from elder groups, women’s groups and business groups.
“Collective decisions are always better than individual decisions,” Ibrahim said.
“We’re just trying to minimize conflict of interest, also. Because individual organizations have their own missions … even though they are all helping the community. This body will take care of the community at large’s interest.”
The council will hold its first meeting next Thursday in Edmonton and will continue to meet on a monthly basis.
Part of the council will be a task force to liaison with police, which Ibrahim said is a pressing concern with some Somali youth falling victim to crime and violence.
The task force will work on getting closure and information for families that have lost loved ones, and work on strategies to prevent further criminalization.
“The community will have a meeting, they will discuss a list of things they need to discuss with Edmonton police, and this task force will go out and meet with them,” Ibrahim said.
He hopes that uniting the various organizations under one name will make for a more powerful voice, and that it can serve as a model for Somali communities in other cities.
About 85,000 Somali Canadians live in Alberta, including about 20,000 in Edmonton.