SIX parliamentarians have already expressed an interest in addressing crime and violence, unemployment and corruption in the country in collaboration with the Civic Dialogue for Democratic Governance Project.

The Civic Dialogue Project, which is being funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), promotes dialogue between Jamaicans across different sectors and levels of the society in order to find a new way of thinking and addressing the challenges and problems facing the country.

Last month, project volunteers met with 18 of the country’s 60 members of parliament at a meeting in Kingston that not only served as a means of introducing the MPs to the project, but also to get their feedback and input.

“It went quite well,” Dr Noel Watson, executive co-ordinator for the Civic Dialogue Project at the UNDP told the Observer.

“They found it very interesting and six of them have asked us to go into their constituencies and talk with the members of the communities,” he continued.

The MPs who have already shown interest in the project are: Donald Rhodd, minister of state in the Ministry of Education and MP for East Portland; Tourism Minister Aloun Assamba, who is the MP for South East St Ann; Sharon Hay-Webster, MP for South Central St Catherine; Victor Cummings, MP for Central Kingston; Andrew Holness, MP for West Central St Andrew; and Derrick Smith, MP for North West St Andrew.

Through a series of workshops involving more than 40 Jamaicans, four possible scenarios were created and documented in video form. Each scenario paints a picture of a possible future for the nation over the next 10 years, depending on the action taken, with the final scenario being a positive projection, involving members of the community who are prepared to work hard and later benefiting from their hard work and sacfirifes. Other scenarios looked at a “community don” eventually becoming prime minister with the nation later falling into anarchy; a continuation of the present policies with no change; while another examined Jamaica becoming a police state, thereby plunging the nation into anarchy.

The videos are shown to targeted groups and the feedback is gathered and compared with the information already collected from other groups that they had previously met with.

According to Dr Watson, as the projects continues to engage the wider society a significant effort will be made to determine the community goals and priorities as well as the role community members are prepared to play in order to achieve the goals of the project.

Last month, the group also met with religious leaders, administrators and educators.

The responses to the videos were mostly positive. However, some of the persons in attendance gave suggestions how the messages could be improved to reach a wider audience.

Dr Sam Green, minister for the Grace Missionary Church, while applauding the contents of the videos, recommended that the input of the Jamaican Diaspora be taken into consideration. “The video touches on a familiar area, which we can interrelate with from day to day,” he said. “But the involvement of the Diaspora needs to be taken into account.”

Stanley Clarke, minister for the Moravian Church of Jamaica recommended that the group find “a rallying point for Jamaicans so that they can bind together”. He added that Jamaicans should also be motivated in a way that they will be encouraged to buy into the national vision.

Meanwhile, Reverend Lorna Letts, minister for St Johns United Church in Hannah Town, outlined the need for the family to be addressed as it is an institution that strengthens the foundation of the society. “The issue of criminal violence has a lot to do with the effects of the family life,” she said.

“The mother and father give them the basis so that they can be an asset instead of a liability in the society.”

Rev Letts said she hoped to take the process forward through ministering to her congregation about peace and issues pertaining to violence. “I want to encourage the community to be the kind of leaders that would aspire to change the,” she said. “There is a lot of room for good in the society as long as we continue to dialogue and work through the process.”

In the meantime, Dr Watson said he believed that persons on hearing about the project would create a chain-reaction effect in the society. “If each Jamaican can change their mindset, not to rob and kill or not throw things on the ground, then the possibilities are great,” he told the Observer. “The expectation of the project is to develop a vibrant culture of democratic governance that guarantees political participation, poverty reduction and social equality,” he said.

Dr Watson said the secretariat of the Civic Dialogue Project hads been working on establishing a parish dialogue committees that would show the videos in the communities, document the feedback and report back to the organisers.

He said, too, that in an effort to involve the youth, the Civic Dialogue Project has joined forces with the National Youth Service which is expected to show the videos and document the feedback during its summer camps.

“A lot of the problems and the solutions we want will come from the youths,” said Dr Watson.