Community segment of IDB security project hosting courses

The Community Action Component (CAC) of the IDB-funded security project is hosting a number of skills training and personal enhancement programmes for at-risk youth in low-income communities.

According to a Government Information Agency (GINA) press release CAC falls under the purview of the Citizen Security Programme (CSP) and it aims to encourage youth to realise their responsibilities, to boost their self-esteem by enhancing their capacities.

Community Action Specialist Roseanne Purnwasie told GINA that the programme is being executed with close support from the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Guyana Police Force (GPF). She said that each of the 10 community action councils has representatives from the GPF. “What we want is direct link with the police; they are a key link in building the safe neighbourhoods through crime and violence prevention strategies to ultimately create safer neighbourhoods,” she said.

CAC is implementing social development programmes in order to prevent crime and violence. This includes a six-month skills and vocational training for youth under the age of 25 who have dropped out of school and have no form of documentation to verify that they are employable. The course will also include violence prevention seminars; a seminar on youth violence, child abuse and domestic/intimate violence prevention will be held in each of the 10 communities. “We are also targeting situational crime prevention where we are hoping that we can assist the communities to recognise crime prevention strategies,” she said. The programme will be executed through facilitators within or in nearby communities.

Another aspect of the programme includes entrepreneurial training for young persons who have the aptitude to run their own business. These persons will be linked in an apprenticeship or internship arrangement with an already established business. Additionally, the CAC will be providing the appropriate training to help them to start their own businesses, the release said.

“Running concurrently with this training is the personal development stream, which is the upgrading of literacy and numeracy skills, conflict resolution, and personal relations,” Purnwasie added. Also, each community will be given the chance to identify three rapid impact projects valued at $1M which may include the rehabilitation of a multi-purpose facility to host extra-curricular activities such as sport.
According to GINA, “The CSP was established to use a comprehensive structure of crime and violence prevention strategies to assist in decreasing the present crime rate in Guyana. It will also facilitate smaller community action projects that are geared to promote community cohesion and intra-community camaraderie.”