Dispute Resolution Seeks New Funding Agency

KINGSTON — The Dispute Resolution Foundation (DRF) is seeking a new funding agency to provide support for its Youth and School Suspension Programme, aimed at curbing conflict, crime and violence among Jamaican youth.

Previously funded by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the programme targets at-risk adolescents aged 10 to 18 years, who are in school or unattached. 

It operates in 30 targetted schools in communities situated in St. James,

St. Catherine, Kingston and St. Andrew, and Clarendon. Services are provided through the Flanker, Spanish Town, Clarendon, Eastern, and Trench Town Peace and Justice Centres as well as the Peace Centre at Camp Road in Kingston. The programme is led by a Youth Programme Manager and six trained youth peace facilitators.

Speaking at a recent Jamaica Information Service (JIS) ‘Think Tank’, Chief Executive Officer of the DRF, Donna Parchment Brown, said the organisation has not been able to find another funding agency.

“We are fortunate that UNICEF provided funding for many years, but we have not been able to get a successor to take on this programme,” she added.

Mrs. Parchment Brown said the DRF will be making every effort to continue the programme, in spite of the challenges.

“We have had a tradition of doing things with no money and this programme is currently in that situation. What we have actually done is to keep on the team on half salary. We have re-skilled the team to be trainers, so they can help generate some funds out of other areas and to pay themselves in the period and to develop some new products that might be within the capacity of schools, PTAs and alumni associations to pay for,” she added.

Commenting on the School Suspension Programme, implemented in five Peace and Justice Centres, Mrs. Parchment Brown said that students on suspension are referred to a centre, where they participate in group rap sessions in conflict resolution and mediation, anger management, peer pressure, self-esteem and other behavioural issues, before returning to their schools. She said that students attend the centres from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and are required to wear full school uniform.

“So, instead of being at home watching television or being on the Internet, or walking up and down on the road or being shamed in school being out of uniform, they are in a centre where the issues that cause them to be suspended are investigated,” she said.

Over the years, she said the programme has developed to include additional schools and new communities.

“We have had an excellent response from the over 70 schools that we have served through this programme over the last five years,” Mrs. Parchment Brown noted.

According to the Chief Executive Officer, the DRF, which was formed in July 1994, works in collaboration with the Peace Management Initiative (PMI) of the Ministry of National Security and the Citizen Security and Justice Programme as well as other government departments and agencies.

By E. Hartman Reckord