Circles Of Support and Accountability
CoSA Vancouver / Fraser Valley
Member of CoSA Canada
CoSA is a unique and innovative community justice initiative for post release support and accountability of sex offenders in and by the community. CoSA VFV also provides education about online sexual offenders and community sexual abuse and how to create safe communities for all.
The purpose of CoSA Vancouver Fraser Valley
The committed actions and purpose of CoSA VFV are to provide:
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Support: Meaningful support is provided for Core Members, especially by engaging in regular, committed contact and providing a forum (the Circle) in which healthy, non-offending, community living can be promoted and maintained. Core Members are accepted after incarceration at a federal institution or provincial jail.
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Accountability: The Core Member’s desire to live a crime-free life, causing no more victims, is upheld through regular check-ins, reviewing their conditions of release, and queries toward accountability. By seeking a Circle of Support and Accountability, the Core Member commits to engage in a way that promotes “no more victims”. The accountability function of CoSA seeks to uplift the Core member’s own pro-social commitment, and to challenge the Core Member when his or her commitment is waning or at risk of being compromised.
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Positive modelling of healthy community living: The decisions and actions of each of its members affects the health of a community. CoSA volunteers provide a connection to, and examples of, healthy community living rooted in values of respect, inclusion, hopefulness, healing, and the commitment to do no harm. By working together, CoSA Core Members and volunteers contribute to community safety.