Tweet
Hope springs anew in Matthews Lane
Gov't moves to replicate successful Grants Pen experience in once volatile downtown community
BY ALICIA DUNKLEY Sunday Observer staff reporter
Sunday, November 05, 2006
These days residents of the Matthews Lane community in Kingston's often volatile west end are armed only with hope and a prayer - hope that the social interventions now being carried out in their community will work and a prayer that life will be better afterwards.
They are not alone. Director of the Community Security Initiative within the National Security Ministry and co-ordinator of the Social Intervention Unit in the Cabinet Office Patricia Balls envisions a changed community at the end of the project's three-year tenure.
"I want to see a community where people have good housing, where there is no crime and violence and see the young men in some sort of employment and training that can help them to better themselves," she tells the Sunday Observer.
Balls, who played a prime role in the social intervention activities in the once volatile Grants Pen community, has been contracted by the Government to replicate the 'Grants Pen experience in several high crime communities'.
She says the Unit has been trying to do this in conjunction with the Community Security Initiative and other social intervention agencies after criminal elements in the target communities have been neutralised following successful police operations.
It's a march on post-Kingfish communities and the targeted ones are Mud Town/Highlight View, Dunkirk/Brown's Town in East Kingston, March Pen Road, Tawes Pen, Ellerslie and Homestead.
According to Balls, the biggest impact has so far been made in Matthews Lane, spilling over into the adjacent communities of West Street, Chancery Lane, Charles Street, Love Lane, Beeston Street, Orange Street, Luke Lane, Mark Lane and Church Street.
The turnaround began in September last year, some months after the arrest of former Matthews Lane strongman Donald 'Zeeks' Phipps. Balls says the residents signalled that they were ready to work with the agencies.
"The first thing we did was get the NWC (National Water Commission) to clean up the sewage and we worked with Lift Up Jamaica to clean up an open lot in the community to be used for housing to be provided by Food for the Poor, who wants to put down an estimated 45 houses," the CSI director shares.
The NWC, through the security initiative, spent a total $1.2 million to rehabilitate sewerage systems in the community.
Training in construction and conflict resolution was provided by the HEART Trust/NTA while the Social Development Commission (SDC) worked with the Unit to develop the 22-man Matthews Lane Development Council.
According to Balls, the council marked a new way of community governance.
"If you notice, the community has been extremely calm," she says. "What the council has done is put more of the power in the hands of the residents. We have shifted the balance of power and placed it in their hands. So it is hoped that the agencies working in the community will work through the council because the community chose the council members.
"When I went in, I didn't see any evidence of conflict and there have been no flare-ups, but we are still doing the work with conflict resolution," she notes, adding that the men have been participating in the various activities.
According to Balls, the Unit did not go in with a pre-prescribed method. Instead, they asked the residents to identify their main problems and they pegged crime and violence, unemployment, poor housing, lack of goals, lack of peace, love and unity, police brutality, drug abuse, teenage pregnancy and poor physical infrastructure.
"They were really knocking themselves when they chose those things," Balls points out. "When we asked them to prioritise, they said violence, unemployment, poor housing, police brutality and teenage pregnancy as their major problems, so we are working with them."
In addition, she says the residents said crime and violence were spawned by poor parenting and so the SDC has committed to conducting a parenting programme for the area.
In answer to the education needs, some 80 residents are now part of a programme designed to prepare them to sit several Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) exams next June.
"We did a survey and of 100 persons, 72 wanted to do Math, 76 wanted to do English, 28 wanted to do Social Studies, 42 wanted to do Information Technology and 20 wanted to do Accounts. So we have gotten together with our partners, the JCF Central Kingston, North Street United, All Saints Anglican, the Dispute Resolution Foundation, the Overseas Examination Board, the Social Development Commission, the Values and Attitudes Programme and the Labour and Social Security Ministry to make it happen," Balls explains.
She says individuals will also be sent to evening classes outside of the community to prepare them to sit the exams.
In the meantime, surveys have been done inside the communities to verify the persons who are skilled and those who are certified. Those who are certified will be placed in jobs while those who have skills will be certified.
"We are going to be doing an employment and training programme modelled after the Grants Pen Peace and Prosperity project," Balls outlines.
The community has a face, she says, and not the one given to it by crime.
"They are really nice, I find the people to be very cordial, respectful; people who want development," she tells the Sunday Observer. "We have found resourceful young people, bright, articulate, mostly high school dropouts who didn't get a chance to finish their education; it was a bit of a surprise."
Balls says the plan is to stay in the community for another two years. She says eight members of the Council are now with the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce undergoing leadership training.
"It is so they can know how to deal with tough issues, so if there is anything wrong they don't block the roads, etcetera; they know they can call us or call the police," she adds.
"We are not reinventing anything, we are just utilising best practices used elsewhere and tailoring them for Matthews Lane. I don't know if it's working yet, but we have some calm. I just feel that if you develop the people, then other things will fall into place," says Balls.
For 27 year-old resident Marlon Tomlinson, the sky is the limit these days, before that he just moved with the flow.
"There is hope," he tells the Sunday Observer.
"I've learnt to socialise with people because I never used to do a lot of that; I kinda know how to express myself verbally now. I learnt that other people's opinion are not necessarily wrong, it's just their point of view," Tomlinson says.
According to Tomlinson, the project has changed the face of the communities.
"Before, there was almost no socialising in my community, because you don't really talk to people as there is always an argument, but now, I know how to deal with that because I learnt conflict resolution and all of those things," he says. "Some of us are now learning to mediate, some of us will become mediators."
Even his outlook on life has changed. "Before you thought that you could only do just so much, but now you get to see that the sky is kinda the limit. A lot more doors are open and there is just more opportunity."
A high school dropout, Tomlinson says his plan is to sit and pass his subjects and get a job that "pays more than minimum wage" so he can properly support his son.
Single parent Annette Waul thinks the programme spells good for her inner-city community.
"It teaches a whole lot of them how to behave and have respect," she says. "We were just wasting we time away, not doing anything positive because, you know, the money is not there and we don't have any work. So it's good for us, especially the girls. Instead of just having babies where life don't go further and you have to wait on a man to look after you, these people teach us how to go forward and look after ourselves."
She says before, she had always tried to be a positive person. Now, the mother of two has gotten an extra push and will be sitting three CXC subjects, all being well.
Do they really think things will change?
"We hope so, not just me, whole heap of us that come here hope so," says Waul.
Source
Gov't moves to replicate successful Grants Pen experience in once volatile downtown community
BY ALICIA DUNKLEY Sunday Observer staff reporter
Sunday, November 05, 2006
These days residents of the Matthews Lane community in Kingston's often volatile west end are armed only with hope and a prayer - hope that the social interventions now being carried out in their community will work and a prayer that life will be better afterwards.
They are not alone. Director of the Community Security Initiative within the National Security Ministry and co-ordinator of the Social Intervention Unit in the Cabinet Office Patricia Balls envisions a changed community at the end of the project's three-year tenure.
"I want to see a community where people have good housing, where there is no crime and violence and see the young men in some sort of employment and training that can help them to better themselves," she tells the Sunday Observer.
Balls, who played a prime role in the social intervention activities in the once volatile Grants Pen community, has been contracted by the Government to replicate the 'Grants Pen experience in several high crime communities'.
She says the Unit has been trying to do this in conjunction with the Community Security Initiative and other social intervention agencies after criminal elements in the target communities have been neutralised following successful police operations.
It's a march on post-Kingfish communities and the targeted ones are Mud Town/Highlight View, Dunkirk/Brown's Town in East Kingston, March Pen Road, Tawes Pen, Ellerslie and Homestead.
According to Balls, the biggest impact has so far been made in Matthews Lane, spilling over into the adjacent communities of West Street, Chancery Lane, Charles Street, Love Lane, Beeston Street, Orange Street, Luke Lane, Mark Lane and Church Street.
The turnaround began in September last year, some months after the arrest of former Matthews Lane strongman Donald 'Zeeks' Phipps. Balls says the residents signalled that they were ready to work with the agencies.
"The first thing we did was get the NWC (National Water Commission) to clean up the sewage and we worked with Lift Up Jamaica to clean up an open lot in the community to be used for housing to be provided by Food for the Poor, who wants to put down an estimated 45 houses," the CSI director shares.
The NWC, through the security initiative, spent a total $1.2 million to rehabilitate sewerage systems in the community.
Training in construction and conflict resolution was provided by the HEART Trust/NTA while the Social Development Commission (SDC) worked with the Unit to develop the 22-man Matthews Lane Development Council.
According to Balls, the council marked a new way of community governance.
"If you notice, the community has been extremely calm," she says. "What the council has done is put more of the power in the hands of the residents. We have shifted the balance of power and placed it in their hands. So it is hoped that the agencies working in the community will work through the council because the community chose the council members.
"When I went in, I didn't see any evidence of conflict and there have been no flare-ups, but we are still doing the work with conflict resolution," she notes, adding that the men have been participating in the various activities.
According to Balls, the Unit did not go in with a pre-prescribed method. Instead, they asked the residents to identify their main problems and they pegged crime and violence, unemployment, poor housing, lack of goals, lack of peace, love and unity, police brutality, drug abuse, teenage pregnancy and poor physical infrastructure.
"They were really knocking themselves when they chose those things," Balls points out. "When we asked them to prioritise, they said violence, unemployment, poor housing, police brutality and teenage pregnancy as their major problems, so we are working with them."
In addition, she says the residents said crime and violence were spawned by poor parenting and so the SDC has committed to conducting a parenting programme for the area.
In answer to the education needs, some 80 residents are now part of a programme designed to prepare them to sit several Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) exams next June.
"We did a survey and of 100 persons, 72 wanted to do Math, 76 wanted to do English, 28 wanted to do Social Studies, 42 wanted to do Information Technology and 20 wanted to do Accounts. So we have gotten together with our partners, the JCF Central Kingston, North Street United, All Saints Anglican, the Dispute Resolution Foundation, the Overseas Examination Board, the Social Development Commission, the Values and Attitudes Programme and the Labour and Social Security Ministry to make it happen," Balls explains.
She says individuals will also be sent to evening classes outside of the community to prepare them to sit the exams.
In the meantime, surveys have been done inside the communities to verify the persons who are skilled and those who are certified. Those who are certified will be placed in jobs while those who have skills will be certified.
"We are going to be doing an employment and training programme modelled after the Grants Pen Peace and Prosperity project," Balls outlines.
The community has a face, she says, and not the one given to it by crime.
"They are really nice, I find the people to be very cordial, respectful; people who want development," she tells the Sunday Observer. "We have found resourceful young people, bright, articulate, mostly high school dropouts who didn't get a chance to finish their education; it was a bit of a surprise."
Balls says the plan is to stay in the community for another two years. She says eight members of the Council are now with the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce undergoing leadership training.
"It is so they can know how to deal with tough issues, so if there is anything wrong they don't block the roads, etcetera; they know they can call us or call the police," she adds.
"We are not reinventing anything, we are just utilising best practices used elsewhere and tailoring them for Matthews Lane. I don't know if it's working yet, but we have some calm. I just feel that if you develop the people, then other things will fall into place," says Balls.
For 27 year-old resident Marlon Tomlinson, the sky is the limit these days, before that he just moved with the flow.
"There is hope," he tells the Sunday Observer.
"I've learnt to socialise with people because I never used to do a lot of that; I kinda know how to express myself verbally now. I learnt that other people's opinion are not necessarily wrong, it's just their point of view," Tomlinson says.
According to Tomlinson, the project has changed the face of the communities.
"Before, there was almost no socialising in my community, because you don't really talk to people as there is always an argument, but now, I know how to deal with that because I learnt conflict resolution and all of those things," he says. "Some of us are now learning to mediate, some of us will become mediators."
Even his outlook on life has changed. "Before you thought that you could only do just so much, but now you get to see that the sky is kinda the limit. A lot more doors are open and there is just more opportunity."
A high school dropout, Tomlinson says his plan is to sit and pass his subjects and get a job that "pays more than minimum wage" so he can properly support his son.
Single parent Annette Waul thinks the programme spells good for her inner-city community.
"It teaches a whole lot of them how to behave and have respect," she says. "We were just wasting we time away, not doing anything positive because, you know, the money is not there and we don't have any work. So it's good for us, especially the girls. Instead of just having babies where life don't go further and you have to wait on a man to look after you, these people teach us how to go forward and look after ourselves."
She says before, she had always tried to be a positive person. Now, the mother of two has gotten an extra push and will be sitting three CXC subjects, all being well.
Do they really think things will change?
"We hope so, not just me, whole heap of us that come here hope so," says Waul.
Source
Comment