Bevon Morrison | Urgent need for intervention in inner-city communities

My heart bleeds for the father and daughter – Romeo Leachman and his fifteen-year-old daughter Saneeka Leachman – who were buried in several feet of mud in Shooter’s Hill by a landslide after several days of rain. Their 10x12 board house could not survive the avalanche, and the hopes and dreams of this family and community were dashed after one disastrous event.

Saneeka and her father needed an intervention so that their hopes and dreams could be fulfilled, for they worked hard to escape the challenges that poor rural communities face. We failed them – the private sector, civil society, and the Government.

For surely, we could have secured a proper house for this family, if not, we should have evacuated them and others at risk and placed them in a shelter

My heart cries for the young man who is told “you will not turn out to be any good because you are from a particular inner city”.

Kevin Simmonds in his book A Cry for Intervention: Perspective From An Inner-City Youth traces his journey from a youth in Wareika Hills to a successful business consultant in Jamaica. He outlines his experiences as a child, where, at any time, he might see a dead body in the street or gunshots ringing in the community as he stood in the shop. Young girls got pregnant, and in some situations, the don would summon a young girl to come to him, and at that time, he did not see it as rape.

He argues that “politicians ignored our many cries for intervention. The almost daily killings of young men from the inner cities by the security forces or rival gangs were not loud enough to solicit meaningful intervention”.

And yet he celebrates the intervention of his paternal grandmother, who guided him along the path of education, confidence, and an enduring faith in God. She gave him hope, confidence and encouraged his ambition to be a lawyer. But there were also other persons – his Uncle Vance, his sister, his fifth-grade teacher, and his first manager at work (who was also from the inner city). This allowed him to change course and not follow the path of his father, his uncles, and other men to become a gangster.

So many outstanding persons are from Wareika Hills or are associated with this community, including Glen Mills (coach of Usain Bolt); and Robert Rashford, aerospace engineer who has received four awards from National Aeronautics and Space Administration. There are many others from inner-city communities who have become engineers, musicians, aviators, and scientists.

INTERVENTIONS

I would like to outline some of the interventions that can be implemented to create new opportunities in inner-city communities.

A. Creating an enduring faith and hope that change can come:

This can be done by an elder in the community, their parents, a pastor, or a football coach. The Church, service clubs, and the private sector can conduct programmes that build confidence, self-esteem and a will to win among the youth in the inner-city communities.

B. Sustained mentorship:

Simmonds currently conducts mentorship programmes in Wareika Hills. Can you imagine if any of our leaders in different sectors were to mentor young persons and capture their imagination and show them the pathway to get there? Change would come to the community!

Perhaps some of Jamaica’s national budget for crime should be diverted to these kinds of interventions.

C. Improved access to education and training:

This is critical to changing the destiny of our youth in the inner city. It will require tablets and data being made available to them. However, it also requires support to buy food, pay school fees, and innovative teaching methods.

Vocational training and business training are necessary because so many persons are operating micro-enterprises. With certification from HEART Trust/NTA and access to e-commerce platforms, they could offer their goods and services worldwide.

D. Community fund:

Community funds need to be set up to finance businesses at very low interest rates and to effect community improvements. This fund could be used to leverage funds from Jamaica Social Investment Fund and other donor agencies to develop community centres, provide support to vulnerable households, and provide financing for training in these communities.

Meaningful change in our inner-city communities is possible. We must respond to their cry for intervention now, and we are the people to embrace and implement this change.

Dr Bevon V. Morrison is a development specialist who works mainly in Jamaica, the Caribbean, and Africa.