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| UDC personnel at work in the community. (FP) |
The Urban Development Commission (UDC) has pledged to assist those agencies working hard to reverse the negative trend of violence which has touched some communities across urban Barbados.
Director of the UDC, Derek Alleyne, gave this undertaking to restore some measure of normalcy to the island’s social fabric, while addressing a seminar entitled: Violence as a Concept: Individual Family and Community. It was held at the UDC’s Bridge Street, St. Michael, headquarters recently.
Underscoring the UDC’s role in the transformation of neighbourhoods through road construction and home building, he said emphasis must also be placed on meeting the legitimate needs of people.
Describing the seminar as timely, Mr. Alleyne noted: "We need to get into the minds of Barbadians that violence does not start by itself…People perpetuate violence…When the situation has returned to a state of normalcy, some people walk around as though violence does not affect them…"??
The UDC Director also urged participants to "open your minds and treat your neighbours as though they have life; and if you do that you would make a statement that life is for sharing and it must be preserved without fear".
During the workshop, participants heard presentations from Donna Tull-Cox, of Crime Stoppers Barbados, and Acting Assistant Commissioner of Police, Erwin Boyce.