CSJP Awards Scholarships to 123 Youths

MONTEGO BAY — Approximately 123 tertiary students from volatile and vulnerable communities in western Jamaica were formally presented with scholarships, costing some $29 million, under the Ministry of National Security's crime prevention initiative, the Citizen Security and Justice Programme (CSJP).

Presentation of the scholarships took place Friday (October 27), at a special awards ceremony at the Wexford Court Hotel, Montego Bay.

The scholarship programme, which is in its fourth year, provides tuition support to address joblessness and lack of employability in volatile inner city communities – one of several planks in a holistic crime prevention strategy.

In his address to the recipients, CSJP II Manager, Simeon Robinson, said that education provided a means by which the employability prospects of residents from volatile communities could be boosted.

"This will go a far way in empowering our youths to contribute more effectively and meaningfully to community development," he said.

He pointed out that, as a crime prevention programme, CSJP has always been on the cutting edge of strategies to break the nexus between crime and unemployment.

"Today we are in 39 communities spread across eight parishes, seeking to ensure that persons’ socio-economic conditions are improved and protected on a sustainable basis, thereby limiting the level of criminal activities in these areas,” Mr. Robinson said.

He called on corporate Jamaica to partner with the CSJP, as they move forward to build bridges.

“I congratulate all recipients of the scholarships and challenge you to stay in school, do well and come out as citizens who will make this country, before 2030, the place of choice to live, to work, to raise families and do business,” Mr. Robinson urged.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security, Dianne McIntosh, noted that the CSJP was ‘one of the finest social intervention programmes" operating in Jamaica.

"The general objective of the CSJP Phase 2 programme is to finance and implement preventative and strategic intervention, which addresses identified individual family and community risk factors.  I am very happy to note that in the second year of this award programme (in Montego Bay), we have been consistent in meeting that objective. This is indeed a partnership,” Ms. McIntosh observed.

She  noted that statistics have shown that youths aged 14 to 24 were both victims and perpetrators of crime and that it was imperative that they were engaged, rehabilitated  and re-socialised into the wider society.

"The CSJP has been implementing a number of violent prevention activities to impact this group, in order to establish partnerships with non-government organisations and NGO services. These activities will allow them to improve their educational opportunities, thereby allowing them to be more employable" she said.

She indicated that the programme would be seeking to groom more communities, casting a wider net each time.               

By Glenis Rose, JIS Reporter