CSSP component one moving apace- several Community Action Councils established

GUYANA, GINA, Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Component one of the Citizen Security Strengthening Programme (CSSP) is moving apace. Several Community Action Councils (CAC) in Regions Five and Six to reduce crime and violence within communities.

Project Manager for the programme, Clement Henry during an interview with the Government Information Agency (GINA), said that councils in eight of the 20 communities identified were recently elected. Angoy’s Avenue, Kildonan, Albion and Rosignol are some of the communities to have their council elected.

Four thousand (4,000) youths and adolescents are expected to benefit from the four-year Community Crime and Violence Prevention programme. The project will focus on empowering young people through technical and vocational training to develop entrepreneurial skills. Entrepreneurial training will be supported with small grants to facilitate small business start-up. The private sector will be engaged to provide work attachments for these young people.

The setting up of all 20 councils, Henry said, is expected to be completed by June 2017, to expedite a consultancy that will facilitate a needs assessment and evaluation for the communities’ development. Henry pointed out that the consultancy will determine the status of citizens’ security in those communities, adding that from the assessment, “we will develop safety plans for those communities, and from that assessment, we will develop safety plans for those communities.”

A part of component one will also facilitate an intervention that deals with interpersonal violence. However, Henry pointed out that the intervention will only be carried out after all the councils are elected.

Additionally, Henry noted that the government is concerned with the growing number of youths and adolescents involved in crime.  Hence there have been a number of advertisements in the daily newspapers for youths all across the country to participate in a skills training programme.

Some of the skill areas include electrical engineering, carpentry, sewing, and auto mechanics among others.

Under this programme Henry explained that youths will be attached to the numerous technical vocational institutions and is expected to commence in September. According to the Project Manager, they have received over 200 applications thus far.

The Community Crime and Violence Prevention Component of the CSSP received US$5.7M as funding for this first component from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

 

By: Isaiah Braithwaite