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Last Updated: Oct 25, 2019 - 12:03:31 PM |
Citizen Security and Justice Program concludes ‘Training The Trainer’
By Inderia Saunders, Citizen Security & Justice Programme
Oct 25, 2019 - 12:15:41 PM
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Participants look on as facilitators conduct training.
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~ Sessions preparing 27 professionals for life as community trainers in
New Providence
Nassau, Bahamas – The Citizen Security and Justice Program (CSJP) wrapped up its Train the Trainer sessions recently, preparing dozens of professionals to groom 200-plus community members into agents of change in reducing the nation’s high crime rate.
The week-long sessions have equipped the new master trainers with the necessary tools to tackle the real-life cases they may encounter in the communities. Twenty-seven New Providence residents were chosen based on their current leadership roles and involvement in the communities around them. Each one will now teach the curriculum - which ranges from gender-based and violence prevention, sexual violence prevention and parenting - to another 20 persons in an effort to further the anti-violence and anti-high crime movement in the country.
The seven days of sessions are a part of a multi-level approach, under a CSJP mandate for Youth and Community Development, which uses evidenced-based research on the best methods to tackle the rising crime in the capital. Gregory Sloane-Seale, a training facilitator with the Shidda Sustainable Development Solutions (SSDS) company contracted for the training sessions, expressed optimism that the trainers will feel more confident in their approach with the kind of tools that will ease their roles in the transformation of the country.
A participant asks facilitator Gregory Sloane-Seale questions on the curriculum.
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“The most important thing in these sessions is that they see themselves as agents for change and that they understand where we are today is not where we want to be,” he said. “In order to make that change, I want them to walk away feeling that they can make a difference and they can be actors in that transformation within The Bahamas.”
The training session participants range from community workers to police officers, social workers, authors as well as religious and community leaders. Trainers for this program are expected to come to the sessions already “transformed”, said Lebrechtta Nana Oye Hesse-Bayne, another facilitator with SSDS. The goal, she said, was to select persons who have been working to have an impact in the community already and further develop their skills to transform even more people in the nation.
“According to data, The Bahamas has a high crime rate,” said Hesse-Bayne. “One of the strategies for the government is to have a crime and violence prevention curriculum that can be used in the community and this is important if The Bahamas is really interested in reducing its crime rate.
“It helps people understand that the behavior around them and sometimes their own behavior causes crime and that whatever toxic and deviant behavior people have been socialized with has to change so they are thinking in ways that are more positive, more affirmative and not so violent.”
The trainers will be working within the communities around New Providence over the next several weeks to identify more people to train on the curriculum. These efforts will all culminate in a graduation ceremony, set for mid-November. Anyone interested in finding out more about the Programme can contact the CSJP at 604-1034 and follow the social media accounts for regular updates.
ABOUT: The Citizen Security and Justice Program is one of the country’s leading social programmes that aims to reduce crime and violence with a multi-faceted approach targeting youth and community development, employment and employ-ability, strengthening the Justice system and prison reform. The CSJP is funded by a loan from the Inter-American Development Bank to the Government of The Bahamas and is executed under the Ministry of National Security.
© Copyright 2019 by thebahamasweekly.com
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