The City of Kamloops is looking at establishing a new program which is hoped to educate young people about the pitfalls of gun and gang violence.

Kamloops has been approached by Public Safety Canada, asking it to apply for a grant worth around $2 Million to create an educational program to convince young people to stay out of gangs.

The City’s Community Services Manager Tammy Blundell suggests the program would be geared towards preventing gang life for young girls in grades 4-6.

“That is the vulnerable stage and age that they get to before they start hitting the, where they are lured into the gangs.”

As for why Kamloops is being approached, Blundell suggests it’s not because of any particular rise in gang-related problems.

“It was mostly Interior communities, smaller municipalities that were identified because larger metropolitans centres already have these initiatives out there.”

She suggests they will reach out to other cities who already have this initiative in place, including Vancouver, to see how it uses the program.

“So we are going to be relying on them corresponding with them to be able to figure out what would work best education wise, figuring out which programs would work best for our municipality.”

Blundell notes this is an education-based initiative, noting none of the grant money Kamloops could get can be used in the hiring of RCMP officers.