Fifteen students from schools in Kingston’s inner cities received bursaries valued at $15,000 each on Friday, under the government’s Safety and Security Scholarship Programme.

Junior minister in the Ministry of National Security Dr Donald Rhodd said the initiative was timely, particularly in light of research data which estimates that there are approximately 160,000 unattached youths on the island, “meaning that they are not in school, they are not in any training institution, employed or seeking employment”.

Rhodd, who was addressing the programme’s awards luncheon at the Knutsford Court Hotel in the capital, noted that youths needed guidance, and access to opportunities as this was an effective way to shield them from recruitment by “organised criminal syndicates”.

He argued, meanwhile, that the high number of unattached youths spoke to the scale of required intervention. While the National Youth Service (NYS) and the HEART Trust/NTA absorbs more than 8,000 youngsters annually, there are upwards of 10,000 youths who are not attended to, Rhodd noted.

He added that the Safety and Security Scholarship Programme has been making its mark in this regard.

“To date, approximately 159 students have benefited from the scholarship programme. Beneficiaries under the programme attend training institutions and universities. The scholarships awarded under this programme are open to youth in communities in which the Ministry of National Security operates,” he said.

The programme, according to Rhodd, was developed to address “the issue of violent crimes” and said that the Security Ministry “has been employing a menu of social intervention initiatives to complement traditional police operations, particularly in volatile communities”.

This arsenal of initiatives, he said, “includes but is not limited to the Peace Management Initiative which is presently operating in Kingston and St Andrew and St James; the Community Security Initiative; the Citizens’ Security and Justice Programme and the Safe Schools Programme, as well as the Community Safety and Security Scholarship Programme”.

He added that that community policing approach acknowledged that while the operational side of policing was paramount, these were unlikely to deliver sustainable results in crime fighting without the input of the wider community.

The purpose of the capacity-building scholarships is to lessen the likelihood of beneficiaries engaging in violent and antisocial behaviour. In the same vein, Rhodd said that the government was seeking to decrease the transnational dimensions of crime and this required partnerships with international counterparts.

The Government of Jamaica, in collaboration with the European Commission, established the Community Safety and Security Skills Training/Education and Empowerment Programme as part of the Support of the Economic Reform Programme (SERP). And Rhodd has credited the programme with helping to sustain the downward trend in crime, while increasing skills training opportunities and empowerment programmes.

The initiative, which has been in place for two years, is costing $194 million, according to the Chargé d’Affaires of the European Union Delegation, Jacques Stakenborg.