Community-based organizations in Sudbury receive provincial funding to prevent cybercrime

Sudbury organizations to receive $180k in funding Ontario is investing in community-based organizations, including two in Sudbury, as a way to stop fraud, human trafficking & hate crimes.

The Ontario government is investing $1.6 million into 18 community-based organizations as a way to stop fraud, human trafficking and hate crime from happening. Two organizations in Greater Sudbury are on the list to receive funding.

Spark Employment Services in Sudbury is one of the recipients.

Spark is receiving just over $70,000 and that money will be going into creating a Cyber Security Awareness Training program, which will be a two day workshop.

“The program will be designed to support job seekers who are interested in job searching online, and or working remotely and looking for those opportunities online,” Chantal Makela, the CEO of Spark Employment Services in Sudbury, told CTV News.

“It’s for anyone seeking employee support and it’s also targeting the employers. So, how to promote it online, how to safely do that and attract individuals online so we’re open to everyone.”

Makela said having a program like this in place is vital, especially these days.

“We know that there are many victims to cyber crime and fraud online,” she added.

“We know especially since the pandemic a lot of individuals are now spending a lot of their time online and looking to change their way of work and therefore wanting to work remotely and for this reason educating individuals about cyber crime security, frauds, scams that are unfortunately circulating online will be really important in order to protect them.”

Spark said it has partnered with both the Ontario Provincial Police and the Greater Sudbury Police Service on this initiative and is currently putting the curriculum in place.

They plan to launch the program in the new year.

More information about Spark and their upcoming events can be found on their Facebook page.

The other area recipient is Sudbury & Area Victim Services.

The organization will be receiving a total of $110,000 and it will be working with other local organizations.

“So, the Sudbury Women’s Centre, Crime Stoppers and Greater Sudbury Police Services,” Tiffany Pyoli York with Sudbury & Area Victim Services explained to CTV News.

“We’re planning on doing some very specific branding, such as a social campaign as well as creating some online tools in terms of education and prevention around human trafficking, online luring and sexual exploitation.”

Pyoli York said the efforts will be aimed at youth in our community as well as their caregivers. She added that having these prevention skills in place is crucial.

“In our case studies and our statistics youth are targeting as young as the age of 13, it’s the average of age of entry into human trafficking. So, when we look at that statistic we want to look at getting that information out to the kids younger than 13,” said Pyoli York.

Those involved said the goal is to share this information with elementary schools, with the hope of the empowering youth.

More information about Victim Services can be found on their Facebook page.