Impact of ‘Liv Gud’ School Invasion to Be Closely Monitored

The Ministry of National Security will closely monitor the impact of its ‘Liv Gud’ School Invasion.

The initiative, which is now in its second year, officially kicked off the second round at the Denham Town High School in Kingston, on September 20.

In an interview with JIS News, Head of Corporate Services Division, Elaine Oxamendi Vicet, noted that the Ministry will be keenly evaluating the initiative.

“It begs the question in terms of our monitoring and evaluation framework which we are putting in place now for the Liv Gud anti-violence communication campaign, because it’s one thing to introduce the idea, the paraphernalia, but it has to be sustainable,” Mrs. Vicet said.

She argued that the message of Liv Gud cannot be lost on the students, as the initiative is a crime-prevention strategy.

The Liv Gud School invasion targets schools within the Ministry’s 34 Schools Interministerial Strategy.

“So how do we measure impact? We would go back to the schools, and we also maintain dialogue with the principals, in terms of any incident or recurrence of violence,” Mrs. Vicet said.

In addition, the Ministry will also employ the use of its case managers to work closely with the schools.

“For the schools of ZOSOs we have case managers. Their job is to work with the students and their household and the schools to ensure that the messaging, the tools that they learn are in fact being practised and are sustainable,” Mrs. Vicet said.

The school invasion sessions started in 2022.

They are essentially pep talks delivered by key figures from the Ministry of National Security, including the Minister, alongside members of the Community Safety and Security Branch of the Jamaica Constabulary Force and Ministry of National Security Case Managers.

Each session is specifically curated to address unique issues facing each school, based on behavioural assessments conducted prior to the visit.