KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) – A transition plan for the Citizen Security and Justice Programme (CSJP) is being developed, as the programme will culminate its third and final phase in 2019.

Communication/Social Marketing Coordinator at CSJP, Patrice Nephew, said that while the programme will end, beneficiaries will still be able to access the services it provided through the relevant ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

“There is nothing within CSJP that is new to Jamaica. We work with several MDAs as key partners in our programme, such as the Ministry of Education, which offers vocational training through HEART Trust/NTA; the Ministry of Labour, which provides labour market details and, of course, our parent ministry, the Ministry of National Security. Right now, we are looking at how to streamline processes and legacies that can continue after the end of the programme,” she said.

Nephew added that the CSJP is currently undertaking rigorous monitoring and evaluation of its suite of services in communities.

“It is about how best we would have left a legacy within the Government of Jamaica. We want these assessments to show what works, what does not work, so that we can inform future policy,” she said. Some of CSJP’s evaluations include the impact evaluation of vocational skills and parenting programmes, the social norms study, and the perception study.

The CSJP is also working closely with the Social Development Commission (SDC) in empowering community members and drafting community profiles that will identify areas for action.

“Once we have the research at the community level, we will then know what the issues and priorities are for the community. We will work with the communities to bridge that gap in terms of advocacy and executing these plans, so that it will be more of a sustainable approach. These will highlight what the issues and the resources are within the communities. The communities then make community development plans and advocacy plans,” she said.

There is also a major thrust to have most, if not all, of the community development committees within CSJP’s targeted areas becoming benevolent societies.

While highlighting the steps that are being put in place to ensure the sustainability of the work under CSJP, Nephew said that each citizen will need to take seriously their role in crime prevention and reduction.

“There will be challenges, because the MDAs that we would depend on do not have as their primary target, or mandate, crime prevention or crime reduction. However, this is a discussion that needs to take place extensively, because each government entity, each private-sector entity and each Jamaican needs to see that we all have a role in the crime-prevention and crime-reduction process in our country,” she said.