Govt accepts Cure the Violence initiative

GOVERNMENT has accepted the International Development Bank’s Cure the Violence (CV) model as a strategy to help reduce crime in TT. Despite problems with the local programme (Project Reason) before it ended last year, efforts will be made to access the data gathered and use it to determine the way forward. National Security Ministry Parliamentary Secretary Glenda Jennings-Smith at a CV meeting at the IDB’s headquarters in Washington DC yesterday.

She said the important point is Government has “accepted the cure violence model to be continued.” Jennings-Smith added, “We tried to access the data but there is none.” Project Reason was conducted in 16 communities in the Port of Spain area, including Laventille and Sea Lots. Jennings-Smith said the impact evaluation from those communities is important since there has been a migration of crime throughout TT. Citizens Security Programme (CSP) coordinator Gregory Sloane-Seale said, “All the stars aligned for TT when this programme came into being.” But there were management challenges between the CSP and the non-governmental organisation (NGO) that was implementing Project Reason.

The project’s front line personnel were “doing incredible work.” Sloane-Seale said, “We did not throw the baby out with the bathwater.”