USAID-funded initiative working to eliminate youth engagement in crime
Published:Monday | January 24, 2022 | 12:05 AMAsha Wilks/Gleaner Writer
Eleven-year-old Roy-J Francis wishes for the crime and violence in his Jones Town community to come to an end. He was in attendance at the first staging of a seven-week- long series of development and life-skills training funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), as part of its Positive Pathways initiative to eliminate youth engagement in crime and violence across 12 Jamaican communities.
Training is delivered by outreach groups – The Hands and Hearts United project and the Jones Town/Craig Town Benevolent Society.
Young Francis stated to a group of 10 to 15-year-old participants, during a motivational rap session with Pastor Jayson Downer two weeks ago, that he aspired to be an entrepreneur, operating his own gaming store when he grows up.
“I want to open one so I can have a better life,” he told The Gleaner, adding that in doing so, he will get enough money to live a better life and be able to move out of Jones Town.
“Everybody loves games!” he exclaimed, which explained his reasoning behind wanting to establish a game store.
Francis, the only child for his parents, is fed up of hearing the barrage of gunfire on a regular basis and, instead, wants to strive for a better life so that he can one day take care of his family.
When asked what life was like in the area, he replied, “bag of killing,” and expressed his dissatisfaction with the activities taking place in his neighbourhood.
In the near future, Francis wants to attend Ardenne High School after passing his Primary Exit Profile examinations and is hoping that he will receive a scholarship to further his education at a local university.
Dr Orlean Brown-Earle, a child psychologist and family therapist, argues that in order to solve the difficulties within crime-ridden areas, socio-economic concerns must first be addressed. While parenting and skills training can be applied, and will work to some extent, Brown-Earle believes that the trials of life will ultimately become a burden on the shoulders of parents who cannot afford to provide a better life or housing environment for their children.
According to Dr Brown-Earle, one negative feature of the home in such communities is the sharing of a one-bedroom home with up to three siblings and a single- parent mother. This is compounded when her romantic lover visits and the children are in the room while sexual relations are occurring. Therefore, through the creation of sustainable jobs that will essentially help to fix the home structure under which children live, sustainable income will aid parents and caregivers in being more receptive to parenting workshops and skills training that are provided by the various community groups.
DELETERIOUS IMPACT
Until then, the psychological toll that living in these volatile areas has on the nation’s children remains high, as the increased rates of crime and violence have become a nuisance in various communities across Jamaica, having a deleterious impact on children’s growth and development.
This has caused the concern for how they will think, rationalise, and ultimately contend with the world around them.
“Once you live in any kind of area that has trauma, it is going to impact you negatively,” Dr Brown-Earle said, noting that with common practices such as gambling and criminal-like activities becoming a learned behaviour by children, who can be very observant, this will result in a generational influence, where these teachings are then passed down to the children.
This, she said, is in addition to what she described as “ongoing conflict”, with very few resolutions being achieved, causing a further deterioration in the psyche of the nation’s youth
Sarah Marshall, special assistant to the member of parliament for the St Andrew South constituency, Mark Golding, and the Trench Town Division councillor caretaker, told The Gleaner on Monday that she has witnessed first-hand how violence has adversely affected the lives of residents and children.
Marshall applauds interventions such as the USAID-funded social development programme, and has indicated that more of these initiatives are welcome, as she intends to collaborate with any other organisations that wants to come on board.
She added that she has been working with the principal of Trench Town Polytechnic College, where a number of individuals have taken skills training classes. Marshall is continuing her efforts to encourage young people to get involved by learning specialised skills that will benefit them in the long run.
“Many households have been rocked in terms of ... if a family is involved ... [they] are targeted and they can’t go to school [or] work. Persons have complained to us, and we encourage them to seek the assistance of the security forces,” said Newland of the effects of crime.
“We try to have one-on-one talks with them, but sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t work,” she added.
It is Marshall’s intention for a community like Jones Town to see a reduction in crime and violence in the future, with more being done in terms of social interventions, while targeting more youngsters at the primary-school level “to get back to a place where we can engage them in some social activities ... let them explore different parts of Jamaica and see that something different is out there,” she said, noting that some children are not able to participate in such activities and are unfamiliar with the existence of some of Jamaica’s historical treasures such as the Emancipation Park in New Kingston.