Dispute Resolution Foundation Hosts Violence Intervention Workshop

The Dispute Resolution Foundation (DRF) recently hosted a workshop entitled ‘Partnership for Peace – A Violence Intervention Programme’ aimed at minimizing violent conflicts between individuals.
The violence intervention workshop was held at the DRF’s headquarters on South Camp Road and catered to some 30 probation and after care officers from the Department of Correctional Services, trainers and administrators of the DRF, and representatives from the Kingston Family Court, Centre for Gender and Development Studies at the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF).
Speaking with JIS News, Donna Parchment, Chief Executive Officer of the DRF, said that the participants in the workshop were presented with information that will enable them to effectively act as mediators and facilitators in situations where persons commit violent acts against each other.
“The workshop was intended to expose the participants to some of the issues relating to providing services to persons who commit violent acts towards others, so some of the emotional, social and psychological factors that help to shape those persons were discussed,” she explained.
“There was also the very important aspect, which saw the introduction of facilitation skills to the participants, because really, the intervention is about how people are enabled to speak about and to take appropriate actions relative to behaviour that may have been harmful to others as well as to themselves,” Miss Parchment further noted.
The CEO said the highlight of the violence intervention workshop “was getting particularly large groups of persons, who are employed in the Correctional Services and who are taking the different approaches towards healing and prevention, as the way in which conflict resolution is done.”
“This workshop prepared the participants to deal with those persons who are diverted from sentencing or trial, to be able to get a proper service whether in group therapy or individual programmes, as well as to work with persons who are in the institutions and people who are working with women’s organizations or working in peace making organizations,” she also noted.
Meanwhile, Dr. Veronica Salter, psychologist at the UWI, one of the presenters at the one-day workshop, lauded the activities but explained that more training needs to be done. “[The Violence Prevention workshop] went extremely well but more training needs to be done especially in facilitation,” she told JIS News. Dr. Salter also emphasized that the workshop provided life skills training where the participants learnt techniques to cope with anger.
Dr. Salter also noted that in addition to the facilitation training given, other areas of focus included anger management, effects of drug abuse and alcohol on violent behaviour and steps to create behaviour change.