The National Peace Program (NPP) will continue to roll out critical new initiatives this year to assist in improving the lives of citizens, especially the youth.
Minister of State in the Office of the Attorney General with responsibility for Crime Prevention, Corey Lane, shared this news today, as he addressed a press conference to discuss upcoming initiatives and programmes under the NPP, at the Criminal Justice Research Unit, #5 Alphonzo House, 2nd Avenue, Belleville, St. Michael.
Additionally, a special presentation was made to Christina Sargeant, the recipient of the Gaining Stripes initiative.
Mr. Lane listed some of the initiatives to come on stream as the Play for Peace – the Gold Cup edition; Elevate the Peace; Activate; Youth on Track; and Critically Understanding and Rehabilitating Behaviour (CURB).
He pointed out that the NPP would be putting gloves and sports equipment in the hands of young people to train them and get them involved in sustainable activities, to assist them in becoming productive citizens.
The Minister of State continued: “We have targeted a lot of young people again not involved in traditional sports, to get them involved in traditional and non-traditional sports…. The National Peace Program, through the national engagement pillar, has ensured that a number of those programmes have been launched, and they are ongoing. So, I’m very, very happy about that.”
He noted that a community parenting programme was started last Saturday in the Rock Dundo area, as he pointed out that the crime prevention aspect of the Office of the Attorney General would work with the Ministry of Youth and other ministries to have community programmes across the island.
“Parenting has been identified as one of the number one things that we need to address and improve if we’re going to see some long term sustainable crime prevention and peace promotion,” Mr. Lane stated.
He noted that the CURB programme would be introduced in schools. However, he expressed concern about the number of calls received about issues in schools, and highlighted that anytime NPP’s change agents were called to go to schools, they went within 24 hours.
“We work closely with the police, … in particular Juvenile Liaison, the principals, PTAs and so on, to ensure that we can do some case conferences. We found that has been the most effective way to do it,” he explained.
Mr. Lane said work had already been done to prevent crime, including robberies, and gave the assurance that more would be done.
“I have asked the Director (of NPP) to…work with our stakeholders in the Police [Service], those that deal with cash transfers and so on. Some businesses have too much cash on hand; they are not transferring fast enough and all these situations sometimes are a great cause for concern. And, I think it’s time that we may have to have some national sessions with some owners and some select employees on how to treat to this situation.
“Crime prevention…is very complex. It is very wide ranging, and we have to address it in different ways; we can’t do the same thing the same way and expect a different result. So, that is one of the things that we are seriously working on because it’s something that we are concerned about,” Mr. Lane stated.