$1 Billion Allocated to Undertake Crime Prevention Initiatives

Over $1 billion has been allocated to the Citizen Security and Justice Programme (CSJP) III, to carry out crime and violence prevention initiatives in targeted communities.

This is outlined in the 2017-18 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives.

The money will be spent on constructing one community centre; developing community safety plans; providing vocational skills training for 474 beneficiaries; providing support for students to access tertiary and secondary education; providing pre-vocational skills to 450 beneficiaries; conducting job readiness training and providing placement services to targeted beneficiaries; and providing on-the-job work orientation apprenticeship/internships to beneficiaries.

It will also be used to: train 100 Community Parent Trainers; conduct outreach engagement sessions; provide counselling interventions to individuals and school groups; continue the provision of violence interruption services in 40 communities and to implement social marketing and media campaigns.

Being implemented by the Ministry of National Security, the CSJP aims to prevent and reduce violence, strengthen crime management capabilities, and improve the delivery of judicial services.

There have been several achievements under the third phase, which began in December 2014.

These include: 278 Outreach Activities with 30,596 at risk youth; the training of 156 parents as trainers; the provision of counselling interventions to 678 beneficiaries; the provision 456 participants with vocational skills training; the provision of on-the-job training for 466 participants; the construction of two community centres, the renovation and expansion of eight and the repair of four.

Other achievements include the implementation of social marketing campaigns to improve police-citizen relations and promote behavioural change; the provision of 651 beneficiaries with secondary scholarships, 541 with tertiary scholarships, and support for 957 students under the Summer Diversion/Employment Programme.

The project, which is slated to end in November 2019, is being funded by the Government, the United Kingdom Department for International Development; Global Affairs Canada; and the Inter-American Development Bank.