Mandeville, Manchester — With tried and tested strategies being used for more than two decades to heal the social ills of the inner-city community of Trench Town in Kingston, Major Richard Cooke recently reached out to provide guidance to a relatively new peace movement here — the Manchester Peace Coalition.

Cooke served in the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) from 1972-1989, which he said required him to work on the ground in areas such as Trench Town.

He said that he took early retirement from the JDF because there was a call on his life to go into Christian ministry.

The former military man who is now an ordained pastor said that his group worshipped with residents in the street and under trees before the Joy Town Covenant Community Church was formed.

Cognisant that community members needed more than the spiritual sustenance, Cooke said that the Joy Town Community Development Foundation was eventually established to structure aid to the community.

As such, he said they have benefited from parenting programmes, entrepreneurial training, and youth camps that exposed the participants to the performing arts and provided counselling and life skills.

From the early days, Cooke said that a basic school was established, as there was need for one.

As a part of the positive interventions, he said his group used the name Joy Town to refer to the Trench Town community.

In addressing the forum in Mandeville, organised by the Manchester Peace Coalition, Cooke said that he began the development work at a time when Trench Town and the surrounding communities were “ravaged by violence” and noted that it is good that Manchester has started its initiative “earlier than later”.

Cooke emphasised that social intervention programmes cannot be effectively put in place without a strong involvement from the police, because some issues that may be encountered can only be handled with law enforcement.

Cooke said that getting into peace work requires that the participants first have an understanding of their own capabilities, personality and “baggage”, and that not everyone needs to be on the front line.

He assured the members of the Manchester Peace Coalition that venturing into communities that are considered unsafe could cause fear, but cautioned that it was not necessarily a bad thing.

“Fear is a good thing. Fear is how we preserve ourselves. When fear is bad is when it cripples you. We can choose to not let fear cripple us,” said Cooke.

The Manchester Peace Coalition, which was launched in the parish last year, has selected fifteen communities —Greenvale, Comfort, Royal Flat, Barnstable, Heartease, Albion, Cedar Grove, May Day, Farm, Waltham, Three Chains, Georges Valley, New Green, Hatfield, and Brockery — deemed as “at risk” in which to work.

Cooke said doing a needs assessment and ensuring measurable outcomes of the projects that are implemented is essential.

Being able to quantify what is being done is a way that funders and partners can be more successfully engaged, as a lot of resources will be needed, he said.

Cooke warned against making promises without being certain that they could be fulfilled.

“Whatever you say you are going to do, know you can do it and do it,” he said.

Attributes, which are not costly but necessary to achieve positive results, he said, are being able to exercise integrity, lead by example and show genuine care.

“People don’t care what you know till they know that you care when you are going in,” said Cooke.

He told the Manchester Peace Coalition members to think globally while acting locally, and to always remember the core mission and vision on which the organisation was founded.