Minister of Community Affairs, Youth and Sports [Osbourne Bodden]  recently attended the CARICOM meeting in Kingston Jamaica on prevention of Crime by focusing on At Risk Youth and Vulnerable Populations.

The Cayman Islands are an associate member of CARICOM and were invited to take part in the meeting. Accompanying Minister Bodden was Social Work Manager with the Department of Children and Family Services, Ms Leonora Wynter-Young, Chair of the National Youth Commission, Reverend Donovan Myers and Assistant Chief Officer, Joel Francis.

The meeting which is the sixth annual meeting focused this year on the theme Juvenile Justice Sector reform and Building Safe Communities.

Minister Bodden said that many of the root causes of crime across the region are very similar and it was instructive to learn of the different initiatives which were being employed in these various countries where the challenges may be greater than ours.

Challenges with the family were a common critical problem but other contributing factors included drugs and unemployment.

One of the key approaches highlighted was the fact that several Caribbean countries have now embraced, at the highest levels within their various countries, Community Policing as a policy direction to lead the way in which the policing activities are carried out. For example in Guyana there are some 49 police based youth groups which seek to provide heathy youth activities for young people and which address the issue of public trust in the police.

The meeting was jointly held in partnership with United States Agency for International Development.(USAID) This group funds and otherwise supports many of the crime reduction and community development initiatives in the Caribbean and in Jamaica is establishing 25 community resource centres which function as a hub for community interaction, empowerment and transformation from its members. They are built in the heart of Vulnerable Communities by young people who are part of a NGO vocational program. They house a police sub-station and include space a Community Development Council Office and other community activities inching a space for business enterprise activities.

Minister Bodden said that this was a very interesting approach for creating safer spaces within vulnerable communities and he was pleased to have been able to attend the opening of the first one of the 25 Community Development Centres in the Rockfort, Kingston.

Ms Wynter-Young said that she welcomed the opportunity to discuss with her colleagues from the region, various community strengthening initiatives which Cayman used through the Department of Children and Family Services and the Family Resources Centre. She was also interested in the discussions which promoted alternative sentencing options for young people and amendments in the law for some countries which allowed expunging the criminal records of young people with the exception for crimes such as murder and treason.

She also made a number of good contacts from community development practitioners and there was already a sharing of ideas and resources since her return to Grand Cayman.

Reverend Myers of the National Youth Commission which is charged with youth advocacy and empowerment in the Cayman Islands was very interested in a youth-led community programme out of Jamaica called the National Integrity Action Movement. The group which involves young people at the University of the West Indies had the goal of changing the behaviour of young peoples toward living a life of integrity. Through this movement, they created young people called Integrity Ambassadors. Young people are selected and engaged in a programme geared towards encouraging reflection, leading to commitment and action around issues of integrity. The students participate in a range of activities including role play, games, use of technology, field trips, discussions and guest presentations.

As the meeting drew to a close, the problem of data gathering was highlighted aa a common one throughout the region. This included lack of data in relation to community development and youth crime and it was agreed that this would be the main theme for the next meeting of the CARICOM technical group on the subject in 2016.