O.P.P. employ teddy bears to comfort kids

News Release
OPP

The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) are launching a new partnership program with Aviva Canada Inc. that will assist OPP officers in comforting distressed children they encounter in OPP policed communities.
Thanks to the generous sponsorship of Aviva Canada Inc., the Community Bear Program will equip OPP cruisers with plush black and white teddy bears that officers will hand out to children who have experienced trauma and devastation.
Traumatic situations such as car collisions, personal injury, domestic violence and abuse have a profound effect on children, and the new Community Bear can help ease the pain and trauma they experience in these situations.
Superintendent Ron van Straalen says that “the safety and well-being of children in our communities is paramount to the OPP, and being able to hand a distressed child a Community Bear at a time when they need it can be highly effective in helping them cope with a traumatic ordeal”.
Aviva Canada Inc. has provided an additional 100 Community Bears which they are selling to their employees and from which the proceeds are being donated to the OPP Youth Foundation.
The May 18, 2011 province-wide launch of the program coincides with Ontario Police Week (May 15 -21, 2011), an annual initiative dedicated to increasing community awareness and recognition of policing services while strengthening partnerships between police and the community.