Earl Moxam, Senior Gleaner Writer

Police Commissioner, Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin, has issued an urgent call for civil society's participation in a sustained social-intervention programme to combat the country's high crime level.

In a positive response, several representatives of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have reaffirmed their commitment to the approach, but have also highlighted the need for significantly more private sector financing of their efforts.

"I'm calling on the private sector to throw its full weight behind this call. It absolutely must be done!" stressed Betty-Ann Blaine, founder of Hear the Children's Cry. Otherwise, she said, these efforts would fall short of their potential.

Commissioner Lewin opened his first press conference last Thursday with a deeply painful, personal story.

It was in June, 1990, that he lost his mother, slain, along with a family friend, by thugs, less than six hours after arriving in the island for a visit.

He reminded the audience of the loss, partly to demonstrate that the country's crime problem had touched virtually everyone and required the united response of literally everyone.

"When I say I know your pain and grief, I have been there," he said.

Admiral Lewin, at his press conference, identified five 'dimensions' to addressing the crime problem: political, business/commercial, law enforcement, socio-economic/socio-cultural and civil society.

Against that background, the commissioner appealed for the full participation of civil society through the activities of the country's numerous NGOs in a range of social-intervention programmes in order to reach the country's at-risk youth.

Similar story

A day later, Hermionie McKenzie, a sociologist and one of the leading participants in the country's NGO movement, had an eerily similar story to relate.

"We were at this meeting and one board member (of the Council of Voluntary Social Services) was missing because he had to attend the funeral of a relative who had been killed whilst visiting Jamaica."

News of that murder, she said, caused her to suggest to her colleagues that theirs, and all other agents of social intervention should come together "as part of an integrated effort to deal with this monster of crime".

It is an appeal that resonates as well with Blaine.

Speaking with the burden of experience, however, Blaine said that such efforts, unless properly funded by the private sector and other financing agencies, will fall short of expectations.

Already, according to the social worker and talk-show host, there are outstanding examples of such multiagency collaboration bearing fruit. Grants Pen in St. Andrew, she said, was a prime example of this model working to good effect. One initiative in which she was involved saw 70 at-risk young men being recruited for a skills-training programme. Approximately 50 completed the programme, she reported, thereby placing themselves in a position to gain meaningful employment.

Among these trainees, she reported, one who had previously been involved in serious crimes was now working with an accounting firm, which was also paying for him to attend evening school where he is studying to become an accountant himself. Another was hired by an architectural firm, which was also financing his further education.

More to do

A consummate social worker and advocate, Blaine insists that these are many examples of how much more private businesses could do to have a meaningful impact on Jamaica's crime problem.

One of her initiatives, the 'Prevent a Drop-out' programme at a primary and junior high school, targets students who become drop-outs at or before grade nine.

Most of these 14- and 15-year-old students are illiterate, sexually active and already on drugs, she says, making them prime targets for a life of crime.

Through the intervention, they are provided with reading specialists who assist their regular teachers. Each is matched with a mentor who provides family-life education and career guidance, as well as works with the child's parents.

Already, she says, significant progress has been made with these children, but replicating it across the island, she says, is thwarted by the lack of funds.

YOU's work

Youth Opportunities Unlimited (YOU), a mentorship programme started by Blaine 16 years ago, has assisted thousands of adolescents, either through direct one-on-one mentorship, or through group interactions with students in school.

Some of the YOU's work over the past five years has been financed by the Citizen Security and Justice Programme, a Government of Jamaica/Inter-American Development Bank initiative. Funding for the programme is drawing to an end, however, with the potential for a major void to be created.

Such funding difficulties will have to be overcome by a partnership involving state agencies, the business sector and civil society groups, to which the commissioner appealed on Thursday, says Georgia Scott, executive director of YOU.