Community development can reduce gang violence

Beverley Reynolds

Caricom’s Social Develop-ment and Crime Prevention Action Plan has the potential to make a significant dent in youth violence across member states, based on the results of its implementation in Trinidad and Belize as part of a pilot project designed to reduce violence in four member states.

In a press release the Caricom Secretariat said more than 60 stakeholders from T&T who assembled at a November 25 meeting to discuss the project to be developed in response to the escalating gang-related violence have identified the breakdown of the family and poor parenting as two of the chief contributors to the formation of gangs and gang-related activities. Several communities in T&T are now under a state of emergency, due to escalating violence.

This was the last of four stakeholder consultations facilitated by the Caricom Secretariat with support from the