Founder & Practitioner
Galiano Island, BC
Steve Woolrich is an award-winning Crime Prevention and Built Environment Practitioner. He is passionate about creating safe and healthy communities and has always considered himself a ‘boots on the ground’ consultant.
Steve’s background is extremely diverse and after graduating from Justice Administration at Mount Royal University and majoring in Police Science he has worked closely with many communities and police services throughout Canada. He is a certified Crime Prevention through Environmental Design specialist, and was a co-founder and the Vice President of CPTED Canada. Steve utilized this methodology and other best practices in many roles throughout his career, including corporate security and asset protection.
Steve is proud to have worked closely with the Alberta Government and was part of their provincial Gang Reduction Network, working as the Central Alberta lead. It was during this time he became a trained Circle Facilitator and continues to use this process to engage with communities, and with youth.
Steve founded the largest Community Safety and Well-Being collaborative in Canada – known as the Safer Communities Collaborative (formerly Rethink Urban). He co-created a Full SPECTRUM approach to Community Safety and Well-Being, fusing best practices such as CPTED, Placemaking and BC’s Healthy Built Environment Toolkit to address a wide range of built environment challenges in both rural and urban communities.
Steve was the recipient of the 2023 Public Health Association of BC’s Award of Merit for his work in communities throughout BC. He is semi-retired and lives off-grid on Galiano Island in beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He enjoys hiking, archery, and writing, and is currently compiling a book highlighting four decades of work in various roles and his passion for the built environment.