RESIDENTS in some of Jamaica’s poorest communities will shortly be able to wheel their babies to neighbourhood day care centres, or leave their older children in safe after-school care facilities. But the Community Security Initiative (CSI), which National Security Minister Peter Phillips officially launched yesterday at the Hilton Hotel in Kingston, aims to do much more than that.

Initially announced during Phillips’ sectoral presentation in the 2005/2006 budge debate, the CSI will seek to assist in the coordination of a number of sustainable community development projects in marginalised and violence-prone communities such as Dunkirk, Mudd Town in Papine, August Town, Matthews Lane and the Spanish Town communities of March Pen, Tawes Pen, Ellerslie Pen and Homestead.

These development projects will be decided based on the individual needs of the communities, and will be initially funded from a grant of J$200 million over two years from the Department for International Development in the United Kingdom.

In launching the initiative, Phillips argued that if Jamaica is to truly wrest its poor and socially marginalised communities from the grips of criminals, it is necessary to provide them with the social and economic resources to deter community members from coming under the influence of the ‘kingfishes’ of crime.

“A study done in 1998 showed that one third of the population in the urban communities of the Kingston Metropolitan area and Spanish Town are young people between the ages of 15-29 who account for some 75 per cent of the victims,” Phillips said.

“When we further investigate this group, we find a core of some 123,000 unemployed, two thirds of whom have never worked and have no educational certification of any kind. These communities are breeding grounds for criminals who begin their career in crime by placing themselves within the employ and under the direct influence of the kingfish of crime,” he added.

At the same time, Phillips admitted that most of these communities were reeling from years of neglect by the state.

“There is another side to these communities,” he said. “Not only are they populated by the poor, but they receive inadequate social services. Overtime, they feel abandoned by the society and respond accordingly in values, attitudes and social behaviour.

“Since it is the state which is responsible for these social services, the government becomes discredited and a deep-seated attitude of alienation sets in. The entire society reaps the effect in the high incidence of crime, violence and anti-social behaviour” Phillips added.

The minister said, however, that the CSI would not duplicate the services provided by agencies of the state. Rather, he said it would seek to build partnerships with existing agencies to improve these services and their delivery to marginalised urban communities.

Phillips also said that the government was seeking additional funding For the initiative. “We are currently having discussions with a number of other international partners as well as with the local private sector, so we can augment this fund over time”.

Deputy British High Commissioner Phil Sinkinson, who was also present at the launch, noted that while initiatives such as Operation Kingfish was making inroads, the socio-economic needs of residents must be addressed. Said Sinkinson: “In order to free communities permanently from the control of criminal gangs, we have to do more that arrest so-called dons and gang members of troubled and marginalised communities.”

The state agencies that the CSI will be working closely with include the Social Development Commission (SDC), the HEART Trust NTA, the National Church Alliance and the Jamaica Constabulary Force.

The CSI board of directors will comprise Gilbert Scott, permanent secretary of the ministry of national security; Dennis Morrison, chief technical director of the ministry of development; Dr Wesley Hughes, director general of the Planning Institute of Jamaica; Mark James, UK Department for International Development; Bishop Herro Blair, National Consultative Committee on Crime and Violence; Robert Bryan, chairman of the Social Development Commission, and Lt Col Oral Khan, senior director for strategic planning for the ministry of national security.