Crime Prevention | Social Innovation Research And Applications

What We Do

We help organizations become change makers by revolutionizing the way they serve their communities. We do this in the following three ways:

Consulting

Working with you to help solve the right problems

Project Development

Designing and developing programs that address complex social issues

Training

Equipping you with skills to implement and sustain evidence-informed programs

About Us

About SIRA

Bringing Research into Practice

SIRA focuses on designing, developing, and implementing evidence-informed programs to assist organizations—including law enforcement, government, and non-government entities—in addressing a wide range of social issues affecting the communities they serve.

Our programs and strategies support organizations in addressing critical social issues, including violent extremism, gang violence, youth crime, homelessness, hate-driven conflicts, social polarization, and institutional inequalities. A key aspect of our work is customizing programs to ensure they are both impactful and aligned with the unique needs of our clients and the communities they serve.

Our programs and strategies are grounded in credible research, principles of effective community engagement, professional expertise, and comprehensive organizational needs assessments. This foundation ensures that the strategies we provide are both practical and effective for real-world applications.

Additionally, we equip organizational leaders and staff with the knowledge and skills necessary to sustain these programs, ensuring a lasting and meaningful impact.

SIRA’s Framework

Examine, Diagnose, Manage – The EDM™

We approach each project using the EDM™ framework to help us identify problems and design sustainable solutions for our clients.

The EDM™ framework helps us assess a problem beyond its known and visible symptoms. We can then design and develop programs through the lens of implementation and sustainability. Although examining the problem is a crucial step in our framework, we believe that it’s equally, if not more, important to help organizations successfully implement and sustain evidence-informed solutions.

Working with SIRA

Consulting: working with you to help solve the right problems
Project development: designing and developing programs that address complex social issues
Training: equipping you with skills to implement and sustain evidence-informed programs

SIRA's Team

SIRA’s team is committed to bridging the gap between research and practice by developing and implementing evidence-informed programs that are innovative and impactful.

Founder

Harpreet Jhinjar, MSc

Harpreet Jhinjar is the founder of Social Innovation Research and Applications (SIRA). Through SIRA, Harpreet brings over 15 years of police experience and research background to develop practical and sustainable solutions to social issues.

Since starting his law enforcement career in 2009, Harpreet has successfully designed, developed, and implemented evidence-informed, community-focused practices. Many of his programs have earned national and international awards. Harpreet's initiatives focus on primary and secondary prevention, addressing complex social challenges such as gang violence, youth crime, family violence, countering violent extremism, and hate crimes.

Prior to his career in law enforcement, Harpreet received his BA (Honours) Criminology and MSc in Criminology and Forensic Psychology from Middlesex University (London, UK).

From 2009 to 2019, he served as a police officer with the Edmonton Police Service and worked in various areas including patrol, the Equity Diversity and Human Rights Section, the Offender Management Unit, and the Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) project, for which he led the development of a Public Engagement Strategy and CVE training for police officers.

Between 2019 and 2022, Harpreet served as a member of the National Security Transparency Advisory Group of Public Safety Canada. In 2019 and 2020, Harpreet worked as the lead researcher on a research project funded by TSAS (Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security and Society) at the University of Alberta.

During his tenure with the Abbotsford Police Department as the Gang Prevention Coordinator, and now as the Gang Prevention and Intervention Manager, Harpreet designed, developed, and implemented the PATHWAYS program, which focuses on gang prevention and intervention.

Harpreet is a recipient of numerous awards and recognitions for his evidence-informed and community-oriented programs, including the 2013 and 2024 Webber Seavey Excellence in Law Enforcement Award by the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

Harpreet strongly believes that implementing evidence-informed programs requires a multifaceted approach, which demands several additional principles that are often overlooked. The passion Harpreet has for policing and addressing social issues has only grown over the years, further strengthening his desire and vision to bring meaningful and impactful change to the field. Through SIRA, he offers this vision to organizations to help them more efficiently and effectively create meaningful and sustainable solutions to social issues that threaten public safety.

Co – Founder | Leadership & Resilience Coach

Harjot Mann, MD

Harjot Mann is the co-founder of Social Innovation Research and Applications (SIRA) and a leadership and resilience coach with over 15 years of education and healthcare experience across Canada, Romania, and Ireland.

She earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Winnipeg and a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Oradea. Harjot is also a certified resilience coach and trainer. Harjot’s professional background includes working as a physician in adult psychiatry at a teaching hospital in Ireland and managing a medical company in Canada, where she led multidisciplinary teams and mentored physicians transitioning into Canada’s primary healthcare system.

Harjot has been providing leadership and resilience coaching to professionals for the past seven years. Her diverse clientele includes physicians, leaders from prestigious teaching hospitals, corporate executives, entrepreneurs, small business owners, coaches, social workers, and first responders.

Harjot’s education and professional experience in healthcare and leadership coaching are valuable assets to SIRA. Her approach draws parallels between evidence-based medicine and evidence-based policing, applies public health principles in program delivery to ensure the core competencies of the programs we develop for our clients are met, and supports leaders in addressing organizational challenges while implementing innovative solutions.

Contact Us

If you are looking to implement evidence-informed programs within your organization, please get in touch with us. We offer a complimentary call to organizations who are ready to discuss their vision and determine how SIRA can help you achieve that.

Get in touch with us

British Columbia, Canada

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