225:, the number of participating homes when the program began in the area was over 3,000. Participation suffered an enormous decline until recently by more than 50%. There were less than 1,500 homes involved in the program, and many positions such as event coordinator and treasurer were not filled. This decrease has been attributed to the police checks that are now required for program applicants and those already participating. These factors nearly caused the program in the region to shut down in February 2009 until a group of volunteers revived it.
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159:. Participation declined from 253,000 homes in 1995 to approximately 25,000 in 2013. Factors in the decline include fewer parents at home (as more join the outside workforce), a greater reliance on mobile telephones or other communication technologies as an alternative to seeking assistance from neighbours, and more onerous police background checks in the post-
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Block Parent programs happened in the United States as far back at the late 1960s. The three known locations were San Diego and San Jose, California and Boise, Idaho. The signs placed in windows at that time were orange or white square, approximately 12x12 inches, with a large black 'X'. Homeowners
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in 1968. Independent programs began appearing across Canada until 1983 when a national committee was formed and the national Block
Parents Program of Canada was created in 1986. The first school affiliated with the Block Parent program was Arthur Stringer Public School on Shaftesbury Avenue in
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Some provinces and communities are discontinuing or proposing to discontinue the Block Parent program, for various reasons. Occasionally, regional programs have been revived after shutting down.
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November 2006, the Block Parent Program was discontinued because it was "unable to recruit a provincial executive".
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would place their signs on the window pane, leaning against their window, with the 'X' facing the street.
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The program, which included 300,000 participants in its heyday, is in decline. RCMP detachments in
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is a large, volunteer-based, child safety and crime prevention program operating across
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The distinctive red-and-white sign that appears in windows of Block Parent homes
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have abandoned the program, as have local police in major centres including
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Block Parent
Society asked volunteers to remove the signs from homes.
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The program was discontinued in 2003 in the City of
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59:Advocate and public voice, educator and network
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294:"Block Parent program returning to Durham"
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296:. The Post. 2009-11-06. Archived from
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480:Child-related organizations in Canada
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312:"Block Parent signs disappearing"
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333:"P.E.I. Block Parents shut down"
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380:"New kids on the block again"
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64:Headquarters
48:Legal status
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364:4 September
249:(Australia)
474:Categories
339:2011-03-08
318:2011-03-08
254:References
219:Kitchener
230:See also
223:Waterloo
278:24 July
208:Toronto
167:History
153:Toronto
98:Website
88:English
72:Ontario
56:Purpose
212:Ottawa
157:Ottawa
130:Canada
120:French
92:French
76:Canada
68:Barrie
51:Active
42:Canada
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392:2015
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
